Settling In
by CdnJAGScribe
Summary: [Animal/Meg Timeline] Animal relocates to DC where he and Meg feel out their burgeoning relationship and test the waters of mutual intimacy. (Author's Note: Rewrite to bring story in line with timeline laid out]
1. Washington DC Relocation

"Settling In"

Author: CdnJAGScribe

E-mail:

Rating: M

Classification:

Spoilers:

Summary: [Animal/Meg Timeline] Animal relocates to DC where he and Meg feel out their burgeoning relationship and test the waters of mutual intimacy. (Author's Note: Rewrite to bring story in line with timeline laid out]

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC charactersare the property of the author. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

Author's Note: I have decided to redo the timeline as most of my standalone stories are all over the place in terms of my previous timeline. So I ended up trying to set up a definitive timeline that I am going to use now for all my stories. All the ones that are in the [Animal/Meg Timeline] will be prefaced by that designation. And I will be writing mostly all of the future stories in said timeline; except for certain stories that I'm currently still trying to finish off. The rest of the Animal/Meg stories will be edited to fit the new timeline and Wild Horses n' Aviators will be brought to a halt as it no longer fits the timeline as it stands now. I will edit each chapter and repost the newly edited (to fit the timeline) chapters of each story; so please feel free to go check out the stories for a second read…because they will probably run a bit different.

Chapter One - "Washington DC Relocation"

_...Animal looked out the window at DC. He'd never been assigned to the nation's capital so this was all new to him. It was going to take some getting used to and as Bethesda Naval Medical Center was going to be his "duty station" as he was going to be rehabbing, DC was going to be his home for the foreseeable future until he was physically able to get back to flight status. It was a step in a direction that he hadn't foreseen just a little over two and a half weeks ago and he hadn't foreseen that in only two and a half weeks he'd go from being a front-line naval aviator to having to rehab his injuries; and now have the love of a very beautiful JAG Lieutenant JG. What a change in one's life fortunes could two and a half weeks bring?_

_And he was looking forward to getting to know Meg Austin…and wherever life's road led for the two of them._

Animal sighed taking in the view around him as he gazed out at the passing scenery and the DC skyline.

"A little overwhelming,isn't it?" Meg's soft voice caused him to start for a second before he realized that she was addressing him. He nodded; after all, this was the first time he'd been in DC. Most of his duty stations were on naval air stations or onboard a carrier. He'd never been assigned to DC nor had he need to come up for any reason. Most line officers tried to avoid a Pentagon assignment - it was anathema to any brown-shoe, even though most detailers were quick to recommend that one do a staff tour to enhance one's promotion prospects.

**_2145 ZULU, 1645 EST; JAG HEADQUARTERS, NAVY YARD, WASHINGTON DC_**

Chief Anders drove up to the main gate at the Washington Naval Yard. "Welcome back Sirs, Ma'am; Chief, you're good to go; parking garage slot six near the doors."

"Corporal." Chief Anders acknowledged the directions of the young Marine gate guard; the Marine corporal letting them through upon checking their ID... and drove forward after receiving the IDs back.

Upon parking, Chief Anders looked over and grinned, "Well, sirs, ma'am. It appears as though the JAG is waiting for you."...as he turned off the engine; got out and opened the door allowing Animal to get out of the vehicle, first followed by Harm and then by Meg.

Harm sighed, "...why do I get the feeling that I'm going to be getting roasted over a fire-pit."...as he gathered his luggage out of the trunk of the Navy sedan.

"Sir, I don't think it will be that bad..." Meg grinned at him, "After all, you didn't break any Navy equipment, get shot at or annoy any superior officers." Harm glowered at her as Harm, Meg and Animal walked up to the double doors of the parking garage leading to the elevators.

"That's not funny; Lieutenant JG."grumbled Harm as the elevator doors closed. Animal and Meg stifled identical grins - of course Animal couldn't resist shooting a smirk in Harm's direction. When the elevator came to a stop on the fifteenth floor; they all exited the vertical lift device and walked down the hallway towards the JAG office.

Entering the office through the double doors of the office, Harm and Meg were greeted by RADM AJ Chegwidden. "Welcome back, Lieutenant Commander Rabb, Lieutenant Junior Grade Austin. As to your presence here in the office;I'm to assume that your report is finished?" AJ gave the two junior officers. Then the JAG extended a look of greeting to Animal. "Good to see you again, Commander." AJ greeted Animal, extending a hand in greeting to the Commander.

"Admiral Chegwidden, sir…" Animal nodded as he gave AJ a brief smile as he snapped to attention. "...Admiral, It's good to see you again too, sir. Command on the TR told me to get my six to shore for my benefit in order to get me back to fighting fit, sir, so I find that my path brings me out this way as I've been assigned for recuperative measures as Bethesda has ordered me here for rehabilitation. I believe their words were as soon as possible or something to that effect."

"Considering you were with the Pacific Fleet, I'm surprised that Naval Medical Centre San Diego wouldn't be the ones supervising your recovery." AJ commented.

"Well, sir..." Animal grinned rather sheepishly; "perhaps I may have had something to do with it, sir"...

AJ was sure that there was definitely something to do with that; it appeared to somewhat have to do with something regarding the fact that a certain young Lieutenant JG during the course of her duties had appeared to have become smitten with a certain Naval Aviator Commander and XO of an F-14A Tomcat squadron. He nodded at the Commander's words and looked over at Harm who looked rather resigned at the turn of events regarding the whole situation of his legal partner's object of her affections "So...Lieutenant Commander Rabb; I trust that you and Lieutenant JG Austin have completed the impartial review?"

"Yes, sir..." Both Harm and Meg snapped to attention, "All testimonies of those present at the scene of the events taking place leading to the recommendation were corroborated by other personnel who were present." Harm paused and AJ knew that the rest of the report was confidential and that Animal needed to not be within earshot.

"Let's take this into the office," was his suggestion, "Commander" he hailed the naval aviator who was standing around looking lost. "I need to borrow Lieutenant JG Austin and Commander Rabb. Hopefully this won't take more than half an hour or so; I'll try not to keep them too long." He paused for a moment. "You are welcome to wait for them to help you out with finding accommodation."

Harm hoped that they would be able to find him a hotel in town. They were still clearing the wreckage of a Cessna 150 that had crashed on the lawn of the White House and FBI and TSB accident investigators were crawling all over the site causing the Secret Service no end of fits. Whether it was terrorism or just an unlucky aviator who'd wandered into the no-fly zone; it wasn't certain, but central DC was crowded.

"Thank you, sir..." Animal looked over at Meg who nodded at him and whispered...softly in his ear.

"Wait for me until I'm finished with the admiral." That caused both Animal's and Harm's eyebrows to make a bee-line for the tops of their heads.

Animal nodded in answer to her request while Harm suppressed a cough and the Admiral nodded at Harm knowingly; a look of commiseration. Women made the choices; men lived with those choices.

"Commander, we have a couple of couches in the reception area if you have need of them." AJ notified Animal. "I know you are tired from that travel so I will try to be brief."

"Thank you, sir" Animal stated formally, "Please...take whatever time you need, sir. I'll be fine." After all, one didn't presume to ask an admiral to hurry up for a subordinate officer's benefit. He'd sit down on one of the comfortable chairs and count the divots in the wall for as long as the admiral had business to conduct with the other two officers.

Before AJ turned to take the other two officers down the hallway towards his office he turned to Animal and raising his left hand to scratch his chin thoughtfully he stated, "Commander Nakamura...I heard that you had a battle injury to your shoulder prior to going on leave. Be sure to stop by Bethesda and get it checked out..." the Admiral said. "Legal ramifications, Commander. Don't want to make your injury worse than it currently is by failing to seek regular check-ups." He explained.

"Aye, sir. I believe I've retained counsel on that from Lieutenant JG Austin, sir." Animal replied. He knew that he was stretching it by not going to see a doctor immediately after landing at Washington National, but given that was an order from a two-star, he knew that he had better do as prescribed and go see a quack at Bethesda sometime within the next few days. Of course AJ had other plans regarding that.

"Very well, Commander, and…Lieutenant Austin, you make sure that he goes to see a doctor at Bethesda…tomorrow. " AJ emphasized as he shot Meg a knowing look. "You're excused from duty tomorrow morning, I'll see you at 1300 hrs. That should give you enough time to get Commander Nakamura to Bethesda and back." The admiral smirked knowingly.

Lieutenant JG Austin flushed red, wincing. "Aye-aye, sir." She said raising an eyebrow at Animal who was trying to studiously inspect the wall.

**_2205 ZULU, 1705 EST; AJ's OFFICE; OFFICE OF THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY; NAVY YARD, WASHINGTON DC_**

"Lieutenant Commander Rabb; Lieutenant JG Austin, you two have managed to draft up a concise recommendation to the Navy Department Board of Decorations and Medals?"

Harm and Meg stood at attention as they watched the admiral look over their report and recommendations.

"I see all the witnesses corroborated the events as they took place and that the actions for which the nominee has been recommended for have taken place exactly as witnessed. Now that the frivolous charges have been squashed, this recommendation can move forward." AJ continued peering over at the two officers raising one eyebrow, countenance grave. "It was an absolute shit-storm with Campbell making those empty accusations but those accusations had to be heard and rebutted under law. Now that the slate has been wiped clean, the award can go ahead for review. What's going to help this move forward is the unanimous decision from the jury that the complaints were unfounded and of a vindictive nature." AJ paused for a long moment flipping through the report pages and looked up finally shutting the folder. "I will be sending the Chairman of the awards committee my highest recommendation that they move forward with an unbiased review of the award recommendation and for it to proceed to Congressional and Presidential review."

"Since this has been a rather exhaustive investigation, I will be giving the both of you R&R Leave for fourteen days starting at 1830hrs tomorrow. Since you will be up at Bethesda for the majority of the morning, Lieutenant JG Austin; you can check in at 1300hrs before you leave for R&R. You may choose to spend it with your family in Texas or in any other way you see fit. The same goes for you, Lieutenant Commander Rabb. I believe you have family in California?"

"Yes, sir." Harm responded. "I haven't seen my mother for some time. She'll be glad to see me."

"Good, then I'll see you at 0730hrs tomorrow, Lieutenant Commander Rabb." AJ said. "At 1730, you will provide me with a case overview of your pending cases as well as your case folders and I will oversee your cases until the both of you return from leave."

"Good." The admiral stated as he placed the folder on his desk. "And Lieutenant JG Austin; have you been in touch with your mother since you were transferred in from Yokohama last year?"

"Yes, sir" Meg acknowledged the question. "She's aware that I am back in the States and so are my brothers." She paused for a moment, "Sir, you stated that it's likely the award recommendation will proceed to Presidential review. How likely is it that it will be approved?"

The note of keen interest from the Lieutenant JG regarding the course of the Medal of Honor process was unmistakeable to RADM AJ Chegwidden and he inclined his head upwards to affix the Lieutenant JG with a critical stare. "Any particular reason to want to be privy to such information, Lieutenant?" He asked.

"Um...sir..." Meg knew she'd stepped into a minefield and that she would have to tread very lightly in order to keep her sections of the report from being disqualified. "Just interested in the awards process, sir...". She paused then continued carefully weighing her words so as to not set off a cataclysmic explosion from her commanding officer. "I've never seen an award of this calibre's approval process go forward so hence my interest, sir."

AJ knew that was a load of horse-pucky. He'd seen Meg in Yokosuka Naval Station Navy Judicial Services courtroom throw her arms around Commander Nakamura and all but kiss him within sight of all and sundry.

However Commander Nakamura was in a different chain of command as a regular line naval officer under an Aviation Command structure and thus did not fall under chain of command of the Legal Services Command under the purview of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If the Lieutenant JG and the Commander opted to pursue a relationship; no-one would look askance at either of them. It was all legal under the optics of the UCMJ

However...with regards to her input on the awards investigation report, the relationship between one of the investigators and the nominee would certainly look suspect if it wasn't handled with kid gloves . "Lieutenant JG Austin, did you conduct your part of the investigation fully and impartially with no bias towards the nominee?" He asked sharply giving her a penetrating look.

Meg snapped to attention. "Sir, I conducted my part of the investigation fully and impartially with no bias in mind in either favor for or against the nominee, sir!"

AJ decided to take that statement at face value; but decided to table a verbal warning, "Lieutenant Austin, it's good that you conducted your investigation fully and impartially. The optics of this recommendation for the Medal of Honor are just as important as the actions that earned the nominee the Medal and any sort of bias no matter how small can snowball and crush the chances of the award going through during the review process. Any indiscretions will be taken into account." He paused for so long Meg started to get uncomfortable. Then he went on, "However..." another long uncomfortable pause, "...it is at the discretion of my office to allow benefit of the doubt..." he looked sternly over at Meg who just wished she could drop through the floor and disappear. "...and I choose to believe my officers when they tell me that they have done their job to the best of their ability with impartiality." He finished. "And since your part in the investigation is now concluded, you are free to pursue any sort of..." AJ took a brief moment to cough into his hand as Harm resisted smirking which was a dangerous prospect since he didn't know how Meg would respond or how his ribcage would survive. "...relationship with Commander Nakamura, should that be your intent."

Meg couldn't deny it since her actions in the courtroom at Yokosuka had pretty much outed her interest in the Commander at least to all those who had worked with her for any length of time. She just opted to say quietly in acknowledgment of the admiral's insight into the romantic affairs of his subordinates, "Thank you, sir."

"Just tread lightly in the future when it comes to those things, Lieutenant JG Austin."

"Aye aye, sir".

Harm noticed that his partner's poise was tense and she appeared to want to be on her way. Normally Meg was pretty outgoing, gregarious and easy-going so it seemed to be unusual to see Meg in this frame of mind and also seeing the tense stance of her outward body posture reflecting that.

That tenseness wasn't lost on the admiral either, "I believe we've covered everything that needs to be said..." AJ stated, laying both hands palm down on the table and standing up. Both officers in front of him snapped back to attention. "Lieutenant JG Austin, make sure the commander makes it to Bethesda tomorrow morning, That's an order."

"Aye aye, Sir!"

"Lieutenant Commander Rabb, 0730 tomorrow so that you can organize your files by secure."

"Aye aye, sir!"

"Dismissed..." At the admiral's clipped command; both officers about-faced and headed towards the door - they knew that the admiral tended to work late and he would be in the office long after they had gone home.

After they exited the admiral's office, Harm and Meg walked down the hallway headed towards the lounge. "Well, I'm headed home." Harm had a smirk on his face as Meg raised her eyes, inquisitively looking at him. "Your plans for tonight?"

"Not telling..." she said smugly, a grin on her face at Harm's probing which she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of getting an answer to. She locked eyes with Animal as she and Harm entered the lounge.

Animal looked over at the both of them. "Done?"was his simple query.

Meg nodded as each of them gathered up their duffle-bag and briefcase pausing briefly pausing their efforts to clear the area of their belongings as they conversed in the lounge.

"Planning on eating out somewhere?" Harm asked as he hefted his duffle and briefcase. They all knew the regs. You weren't supposed to go to any restaurant dressed in uniform as per the edicts of the Uniform Regulations of the United States Navy. Chapter One; Section 1301 (5) a. _General. The prescribing authority may authorize working uniforms, except Navy Blue Coveralls, for commuting to and from work. Commuting is defined as a direct route from place of residence to place of work by means of a private vehicle, to include all travel aboard DOD-owned/controlled aircraft._

"We're going straight home and changing before we head out to eat..." Meg informed Harm who looked rather flummoxed as she grinned at him indicating Animal who was studiously studying the Colonial man o'war during the Revolutionary War painting on the wall in the lounge trying to ignore Harm's penetrating gaze. All of them in service khakis with collar insignia which were the uniforms they'd departed the carrier wearing. Service Dress Khakis; the ones with the ribbons, were the UOD (Uniform of the Day) at the location to which they were reporting to. "Of course that's if we decide to eat out. It's been a long day of travel, Harm and I, for one, would like to get a bit of rest before tomorrow." She told him. "I'm sure Commander Nakamura would like to do the same."

Somehow Animal had managed to scrounge up enough of his pay left over to pick up a khaki O-5/O-6 cover with the single row of scrambled eggs at the onboard ship NAVEX and was holding it under the crook of his arm. Harm smirked at Animal with an ingratiating grin as he turned to Meg "**_We_**?" he asked curiously knowing full well that reference to the inclusive first-person plural pronoun wedid not include him.

Meg rolled her eyes. "Yes, we..." the inference to the senior officer standing in the lounge clearly evident in Meg's sarcastic response.

Harm sounded disappointed that he wasn't invited along for their off-duty festivities if having dinner was to be defined as such, "Well, I guess tonight is just me, myself and I." He stated dramatically trying to elicit sympathy from his partner. None was forthcoming.

Meg summarily ignored any further inquiries from Harm as to what she and Commander Nakamura would be doing as they walked-towards the parking garage after getting off the elevator at the parking garage level. Harm's red 68 Corvette was parked in the parking garage while a few spaces down sat Meg's sedan.

"Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow before we go on leave." Harm said resignedly. It had been a little too short of time with Meg doing the investigation onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. He'd wanted to get to know his partner a bit more and he'd felt that tension between them; the type of sexual attraction, at least on his part, that caused many to throw caution to the wind and do the unthinkable of getting personally involved with a co-worker. And that was strictly forbidden within the JAG chain of command. What he hadn't realized was that Meg would look outside the chain of command to satiate her desires and that had taken him by surprise; an unpleasant surprise.

"I'll see you tomorrow, sir" she said to Harm who sighed deeply and nodded getting into his car and shutting the door.

When Animal and Meg were settled in Meg's car, she turned to Animal who had mentioned that he could just get dropped off at a hotel near the Pentagon and that he could make his way via the subway to Bethesda but Meg resisted. She told him that there was no way that she was going to allow him to spend exorbitant amounts of money on accommodation when they could just share where she was living.

Animal knew that Meg was formidable when she put her mind to what she wanted and it was useless to try and resist.

In any case, Meg lived near the Navy Yard. It cut down on commute times and she was able to have the afternoon to relax in any case. As Meg pulled into the the apartment complex that had a sign with the name Capitol Hill Crest Apartments. Animal admired the white stucco, wood and concrete building as they went into the underground parking lot.

Meg parked in her spot near the elevators leading up into the building. "Bring your bags up. Even though this is a good neighborhood, I don't leave temptation for people to break into my vehicle." She stated.

"Are you sure you're OK with me bunking with you?" Animal asked her.

"Absolutely..." Meg responded as they entered the now open doors of the elevator. "Oh, Hello, Mrs. Hamilton." She addressed an grey-haired matronly woman who was wearing slacks a blouse and a button up white cardigan who was standing outside the elevator making sure that the two naval officers were able to join her in there.

"Why hello, Meg." The elderly lady greeted her warmly as Meg gratefully thanked the lady who'd held the elevator for them. "Just returned?"

"Yes. Had some out of town work for a few weeks." Meg informed her. "Hopefully I won't have need to go out again for a while."

"Well, dear; that's Navy life for you. Saul did it for twenty five years before he got out into the regular world." Mrs. Hamilton said as the elevator came to a stop on the sixth floor. "You two have a good day, dear. I have to get home and feed my cats." She waved back at Meg as she hurried down the corridor.

Animal had a mental impression of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland as he watched her scurrying away. Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! He just shrugged his shoulders while waiting for Meg to unlock her door.

When Meg pulled in the bags that she had, Animal was able to bring his in. His eyes widened. It was a nice compact studio apartment with an open layout. "i've only been living here for a few months." She informed him. "I moved in recently. The rent isn't too high and it's easy on the pocket book for a junior officer to maintain." Animal had to admit that this was certainly well worth the rent. "What do you say we order out?" Meg asked him forcing him to switch rapid mental gears from discussing her apartment to deciding what to get for dinner.

"I don't know." Animal stated trying to appease both their stomachs by deciding quickly, "Chinese sounds good." He looked at Meg questioningly.

Meg nodded, she agreed that Chinese was what she'd been considering too. Grand China Carryout had a delivery menu and well, they ordered at least fifty seven dollars worth of food plus tax. The restaurant stated that they would deliver within forty-five minutes. Animal insisted that he would pay for the meal since he had the greater income than Meg who had made a half-hearted protest but finally acquiesced to his paying his way.

Animal observed that the bed was up against the wall and the couch was right at the foot facing a TV and a stereo system. Meg was meticulous in making sure her bed was neat and tidy as anyone who entered her place would see the bed.

The bathroom was a separated room to the side which luckily had some privacy as her studio apartment's floor to ceiling windows were tall panes of triple-glazed glass with only a curtain spanning the lower half of the window and bare window spanning the upper half. The studio apartment had sixteen foot ceilings. Upstairs was an open area which would normally be a sleeping area for most people but it was where she'd turned into her office replete with filing cabinets and a desk with fax machine and a laptop computer.

Pretty soon a ring on the kitchen counter phone interrupted Animal and Meg's soft conversation. It was the Chinese food delivery-person and Meg gave her suite number, floor-number and hit the front door unlock for the main-door to the complex.

It took about three minutes from main door unlock for the knock to come on Meg's suite door. Animal handed over cash plus tip amount to the delivery driver and the man was on his way. Shutting the door, Animal brought the bags over to the kitchen counter and He and Meg started slowly portioning out the food. The main ingredient of a number of the Chinese dishes that they'd ordered was meat. Meg did prefer to eat healthy but unlike her legal partner, she couldn't go completely without meat. And meat-less dishes didn't give her the same digestive satisfaction.

"Lucky Harm isn't here..." Animal commented dryly, "he'd be having a fit with seeing chicken balls and BBQ pork."

"All things considered since he's a vegetarian..." Meg smirked with a deliciously wicked twinkle in her eyes, "...guess we can't say he'd have a cow...".

Animal nearly choked on his food.

**_1845 EST; MEG'S APARTMENT, NAVY YARD DISTRICT; WASHINGTON DC,_**

Animal dried the last few dishes as Meg handed them to him. The counter was light granite which matched the tiles on the kitchen walls.

When they were finished drying their hands, Meg looked over at him, "So what time do you think we should head up to Bethesda?" She asked him knowing that with traffic considerations it would be an early morning.

Animal looked at his aviator's watch on his wrist. "I have an actual appointment time of 0940hrs. Which means we should wake up about 0700hrs if we want to get up there. I'm not sure about the traffic situation so we need to get up there early." They walked from the kitchen to the main living area which meant the area where both the bed and the couch sat.

Meg gave him a slow grin as she said huskily, "so...I guess we should take a shower tonight then." Meg's eyes were locked on his.

"Flip a coin to see who gets first dibs on the showers?" Animal said trying to defuse the tension with a little humor.

"Who said anything about taking turns?" Meg's voice was a low purr as she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him leaning in and locking her lips on his losing herself in an impassioned kiss running her hands along his back pulling his shirt up and Animal felt her bare hands under his shirt running along his bare skin sending tingles. Then her hands moved forwards sliding out from under his shirt and then unbuttoning his khaki shirt which dropped to the floor with a metallic muffled clunk as his CNT shirt hit the floor; his wings hitting the Certified Navy Twill followed immediately by the muffled thud of his ribbon rack the two objects hitting almost a single thunk on the hardwood floor. His white t-shirt also followed silently to cover his khaki shirt.

"I...want...you..." whispered Meg in his ear as she clung tightly to him. "...so...much..." This was a side of Meg Austin that Animal had never experienced even during that intimate kiss at the VOQ in Yokosuka. He was definitely not the one in control of this encounter as he sat down forcibly on the couch as Meg pushed him down to a sitting position and she sat on his lap straddling him face to face; her fingers in his hair.

His eyes widened as he felt her hands questing for his belt-buckle tugging at it to loosen it; her lips on his mouth hungrily kissing him. Animal's brains fled for parts unknown presumably Bermuda or Tahiti.

He'd be saying _Acts of Contrition_ for the next six months at any rate.

OK...nine months. Animal amended his timeline as Meg slipped off his lap, grabbed onto his belt and tugged, slipping both khaki trousers and briefs off him. What minuscule portion of his mind that was left said a brief oh my God and disappeared and all that was left was animalistic instinct which was nothing but pleasure centered. His eyes were closed as he felt her touch against his bare skin.

His mind never even registered the fact that Meg was now back sitting on his lap and all he could feel was her bare skin against his bare skin and a cascade of moist sensations that he'd only ever dreamed about.

His eyes widened as Meg sighed softly in his ear a supplication to a higher deity of "oh...god..." Animal thought he also heard an "oh...yes." Yup he was going to be saying those Contritions for one full year. **_I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee..._**yeah, but it was something that was utterly pleasurable to the point where all his religious cares went out the window. He was Meg's and she was his. This was mutual consent; wasn't it? Animal rationalized as he felt Meg tighten around him and cry out with release as he let out a soft groan.

"Birth control?" Were the first two words out of his mouth when he could control his breathing. Meg nodded.

When she could speak she said "I've been on it since puberty." A light sheen of sweat covered her skin. "I think we need a shower." She said indicating their state of undress with a smirk. "If we didn't have reason enough before."

"This wasn't too quick?" Animal asked thinking that perhaps they'd jumped in with both feet too quickly after revealing how much they cared for each other.

"We're both adults." Meg rationalized as she gazed into his eyes. "Consenting adults..." she clarified. She was still on his lap and he could still feel her weight on him, a light weight barely perceptible to someone who worked out like Animal. "Tosh?" Meg whispered in his ear.

"...yes..." he answered Meg.

"Again?" She murmured as she reached down and his eyes widened. God, she was his everything. Passionate love-making ensued with her straddling him and his hand on her hips. Her eyes were wide with pleasure as she gazed into his and both sighed in pleasure as they went over the edge together.

After which Meg pulled him into the shower which his memory was hazy but it seemed as though not a lot of washing took place, at least for the first little while.

It was a rather wet and naked Meg who smirked at him as she wrapped her leg around his torso and guided him into doing whatever she wanted. And well, as a man, Animal went along quite willingly.

When they were finished with shower exertions, they washed off; hair and torso and exited the shower.

As Animal looked rather confused at any rate staring at the couch more of a loveseat trying to decide if he would fit, Meg informed him that he wouldn't be sleeping on the couch but in her bed with her. "It's a queen; plenty of space..."she informed him. "I want you sleeping with me..." she hugged him tightly, the feel of her bare skin still moist from the shower that they'd taken, the feathery light touch of tendrils of freshly washed damp hair against his cheek and the light peachy scent of her body wash wafted against his nostrils.

Animal smiled. Today he had seen and felt things with Meg Austin that Harm could only dream of. And well, Harm was just going to have to be satisfied with dreams as Animal had Meg Austin's heart and there was no way that she was ever returning on the market again.

It was with those thoughts that Animal and Meg turned out the lights, comfortable in their nudity, Meg's left leg draped across Animals thighs; Meg's naked core pressed up against Animal's hip. And her left arm across his chest, her breasts pressed up against his side and her head tucked against his; her breath tickling his ear. They fell asleep together as the moonlight fell over their slumbering bodies nestled amongst the sheets.


	2. Good Morning

Chapter 2 - "Good Morning"

**0645 EST; MEG'S APARTMENT; CAPITOL HILL CREST APARTMENTS; NAVY YARD DISTRICT; WASHINGTON DC**

The lightening sky awoke Animal first thing even before the alarm would go off as it was set to 0700hrs. Animal groaned softly. He felt an ache somewhere in the southern frontal regions and smiled. Lifting his head a slight bit, he could see a light skinned arm draped across his chest as well as a leg quite obviously not his own draped across his upper thighs. A blonde haired head was nestled by his shoulder and breath tickled his cheek as he nestled back in to give his sleeping companion a bit more of a comfortable position. Animal grinned slightly as he felt her arm across his chest tighten reflexively and her body press against him, her moist core against his thigh pressing against him as she sighed softly in sleep.

Normally Meg would be up at 0600, he assumed, as she had to get ready for first call which was 0730hrs in the office, but as she received orders from a superior officer to the effect of "make sure Commander Nakamura gets to Bethesda." She could sleep in a little.

Meg sighed contentedly as she lay against the naked form of her lover. She saw that he was still slumbering peacefully though she hadn't realized that he had awakened before her. She let the corners of her lips turn up in a wickedly mischievous smile as she reached for a certain part of his body that she was interested in.

Tosh, her lover, had drifted off to sleep again when he heard the alarm go off and awakened to feel Meg's hand softly caressing his lower body extremity; his eyes widening as his brain just started to comprehend just exactly which part of him she had a hold of. "Good morning, Tosh..." she murmured softly, her beautiful blue eyes locked on his intently, a mischievous smile playing about her lips.

Good morning indeed, he thought as he looked up at her. He felt her straddle him, her hands, palm down against his chest and lowering herself onto his lap.

Meg exhaled feeling him fill her entirely as she started rocking on top of his torso gently gazing down at him. "That feels so good." She sighed, eyes half-closed feeling him. Evidently Animal's brain hadn't come back from its tropical vacation yet because he couldn't utter much other than his own gasps of pleasure as she quickened her pace giving him new novel sensations to ponder with what few braincells that he had left which were functional. The sensations nearly blew the top off his head.

Animal gazed up at her envisioning an Aphrodite emerging clothes-less from the clam-shell as she proceeded to turn him into a limp glob of gelatin.

"Tosh..." she breathed; gasped rather, as the climax of their morning exercise left her collapsed over his torso breathing heavily. She noticed beads of sweat dotted his upper lip and felt some of his on her hand as she'd embraced him tightly at their peak as the sweat trickled down his back. September was still considered warm for DC and amorous exertions contributed to them feeling like they had been exercising in a sauna.

"Oh...God..." Animal groaned; their mutual culmination had left them both wrung out and physically drained.

Meg smirked at him, "Wrong deity; I'm Meg." Maybe it was early that morning but that made them both dissolve into fits of laughter. Recovering from the laughter was hard as looking at each other only served to set them both off again.

"I think...we...both...need another..." Animal gasped out...

"...shower?" Meg finished? Animal nodded, his laughter having subsided to snorts and giggles. Disengaging from their intimate joining and embrace, the two got out of bed, Animal's eyes playing over the supple curves of Meg's naked torso.

"Like what you see?" Meg purred at her boyfriend and lover.

Animal smiled softly, leaned in, growling a soft "yes...I do..." in her ear.

"Then..." Meg gave him a low-lidded glance. She whispered in his ear, "...take me..." she licked the tip of his nose "...in the shower..." Oh god, did he ever want her so badly.

He growled low in his throat, "I want you now..." as Meg's smile widened, pulling him on top of her as she fell backwards onto the bed again, guiding him inside as she wrapped her legs around his hips.

"Take me..." she coaxed him, gasping as he did exactly as she had commanded him to do; the rhythm of their love-making in time with her gasps of ecstasy. Meg's body meeting his every thrust driving them both wild.

They knew that they didn't have time to explore everything they wanted in terms of passion so their pace was a hasty finish; Meg's throaty moan; quivering as the intense sensations of the climax of their coupling as Animal collapsed over her panting; their mutual climax wringing their energy out of them. "Oh...Tosh..." she gasped. When her breathing came back down to normal she said, "we need to shower so we can get to Bethesda for your appointment." It was nearly 0738hrs as Animal looked over with wide eyes at the bedside clock.

A quick shower; a mutual tender washing of each others bodies and hair and they exited the shower after a promise of an intimate shower raincheck after his appointment.

His wound was open though stitched and had to be handled with care, but he would be seeing the doctor about that this morning and hopefully he'd be able to establish a regimen of wound-care that would eventually close up this wound so that he could start rehabilitation exercises.

"What's the UOD for the day?" Meg asked as she put on her khakis along with her single silver bar on the right collar and the JAG mill-rinde and oak leaves on the left. The MUC (Meritorious Unit Commendation) and the National Defense Service Medal ribbons were her sole decorations on her service dress khakis.

Meg admired her boyfriend as Animal put on his spare service dress khakis, crisply ironed, silver oak leafs resplendent on the collars and his six rows of ribbons vastly outnumbered Meg's rack. On top of that were his Naval Aviator's wings. Only the Commanding Officer of an active duty command were designated to be able to wear the Command-at-Sea pin. Despite the fact that he was technically an executive officer in command of an active duty fighter squadron; until he took over the reins of Commanding Officer (with the initial CO) of VF-41 Black Aces from Commander Dale "Rattler" Kinnick, he would not be eligible to place the Command at Sea pin a quarter of an inch above his name-tag. Not that it mattered a hill of beans.

After the CAG and the CO of the boat had put his name forward to replace the disgraced no-load former XO of VF-41 which was summarily approved by the Chief of Naval Operations, Animal was on track for a command of his own as soon as he could get this busted up wing of his healed and back to FRS Training under Category III (medical).

At least there was a good chance he'd be back in the cockpit of an F-14A Tomcat doing what came naturally - flying off the deck of an aircraft carrier displacing 117,200 short tons in an aircraft designed to fly at over twice the speed of sound. The C-13-1 catapult could launch 36 tons at 140 knots off the pointy end of the boat. He couldn't wait to get back to flying but at least he'd be able to establish a good solid relationship with the woman he loved.

**0925 HRS; BETHESDA NAVAL MEDICAL CENTRE, BETHESDA MD. **

"Good afternoon, Commander. If you and your companion will follow me. We can begin discussing your treatment schedule. You're a long way from San Diego, Commander." Captain Walter Sharpley, his assigned physician, commented as he walked down the hallway; Animal and his companion trailing after him. At one office, he stopped and gestured, asking them to enter ahead of him. He sat down behind his desk opening Animal's personnel jacket perusing the file for a long moment before commenting, "You were decorated for the Purple Heart for being wounded under fire and nominated for the Medal of Honor? These are quite the heroic actions according to your citation. I presume it's going up the chain at this point in time since I don't see the ribbon on your rack at the current moment."

"Yes, sir, for the Purple Heart, as to the Medal of Honor, that's debatable, sir. It all depends on our Commander-in-Chief and his approval or disapproval."

"Why is that, Commander?" Captain Sharpley looked amused at Animal's response.

"Well, sir, I was just protecting the men who were with me on that undisclosed mission, sir." Animal replied. "I asked them to come help me retrieve our downed RIO, they opted to accompany me on that request. I wouldn't have been doing my job, if my job description didn't expand to cover them, sir…and they wanna reward me with a pretty blue ribbon and bauble? I was just doing my job, sir. I mean it's an honor and all, but..." he trailed off.

"They said you were humble." CAPT Sharpley grinned. "Are you sure you're a fighter pilot?"

"Well, sir, the gold wings on my uniform tell me I am…" Meg grinned indulgently at Animal as he responded, puffing his chest out. "Those who can't; boast, those who can; do. And, sir, it's not fighter pilot, it's naval aviator, we're a cut above zoomies."

"OK…" CAPT Sharpley replied. "I see." He said glancing up at his DSMIV "Yes, you are definitely a naval aviator."

"Delusions of grandeur, oversized ego?" Meg asked with one of her patented wicked smirks, fully cognizant of which psychiatry tome, Captain Sharpley was glancing at. "Convinced that he's the best naval aviator in the world?" She looked at Animal who looked rather deflated at those comments. "Shades of narcissism?" She finished with a wink that fully showed that she was kidding.

"Psychiatrist? Lieutenant JG?" CAPT Sharpley asked even more amused at Meg's comments.

"No…she's a lawyer." Animal said dryly, "A Navy JAG."

CAPT Sharpley looked at Meg, then back at Animal. He wasn't sure whether to congratulate Animal on a catch or shake his hand in commiseration. He settled for commenting just as dryly as Animal had, "Lawyer, huh?"

"Yes, sir." Meg responded proudly, giving Animal a smirk that was half indulgent and half affectionate.

Captain Sharpley looked at the both of them noting with some satisfaction that the naval aviator O-5 and the young Lieutenant JG appeared to know one another with a certain degree of familiarity. The captain noted mentally that they appeared to be close. Their relationship would also assist in the naval aviator's recovery back to flight status. Patients always responded much better when they had a significant other to help them in their rehabilitation program. "Well, we will take some x-rays to see how well your shoulder is healing up. Left shoulder injury, two bullets originating from an AK-47 firing a 7.62x39mm round. Punched straight through the muscle, missed arteries and surprisingly your entire shoulder joint. The first passed through to the left of your humerous." CAPT Sharpley commented, looking at his file.

"Well, it didn't seem so humorous at the time." Animal intentionally misinterpreted it, getting a chuckle out of the captain.

"Yep…that never fails to elicit a joke." The captain chuckled at the pun.

Animal figured he was going to get along just fine with the medical services Navy Captain.

"The second bullet went between your clavicle and your scapula. If it had hit your scapula, it would have shattered it and we'd be looking at a medical down chit from flying. You were extremely lucky, Commander."

"Yes, sir. I definitely missed the axe on that one." Animal responded, looking at Meg, with jaw dropped open. The doctors hadn't gone into that much detail before, they just tossed him onto rehabilitation. But knowing the near-miss to his flying career, he resolved even more that getting shot at was 'for the birds'. From now on, he was going to stay comfy in his F-14 Tomcat…and resist getting shot down, even if he had to take down an entire enemy squadron by himself.

CAPT Sharpley explained to the naval aviator that thankfully the wound itself was not a career killer but a lot of his recovery would depend on how his body reacted to treatment; how quickly the would sealed itself as far as recovery time would be and that his date of start on physical rehabilitative therapy was dependant on that wound remaining sealed.

Animal nodded. He'd known that a 7.62x39 times two would do considerable damage to his shoulder and that he was lucky to have escaped much of the physical ramifications of such wounds in the course of pitched battle however it didn't make up for disappointment in not being able to start physical rehab quickly. "I understand, sir."

"Chin up, Commander, we'll get you there." Captain Sharpley assured him, "We'll do everything possible to lessen the amount of time it takes in order to rehabilitate you to combat-status. What I would like for you to do, even though we do have your x-rays from the post-op on the Mercy is to get another round of X-rays done so that we can establish a bench-mark of where you are at currently in the healing process. Commander." He made a note in Animal's patient records and then handed over a radiology request form to Animal. "This is for the radiology unit to put an expedite on the processing of the results and I may have to order a CT scan of the affected area pending the results."

Animal nodded. Being poked and prodded by medical technicians was not his idea of a fun experience during the best of times and being wounded and in recovery was far from that.

When they were finished, Captain Sharpley inspecting the wound, cleaning, applying antibiotic ointment to prevent infection and re-dressing it. "So, head to radiology and let's get those X-rays so that I can establish a rehabilitation schedule for you to follow. Of course you can also do a bit of cardio so long as you don't put too much strain on your shoulder. Jogging will be good for you to increase stamina and that will also oxygenate your blood vessels promoting healing of the muscle tissues." He informed Animal.

Animal groaned. He hated jogging at the best of times. ROTC had required him to jog to meet physical fitness requirements; those runs being timed and he'd hated every single moment of it with a passion but many of the alternatives to jogging were harder on the body. Biking meant holding the handle bars with the upper torso being supported by arms and shoulder. Swimming involved full rotator movement of the arms and shoulders; the very part of his body, he was supposed to be gentle with.

Captain Sharpley knew that most military men and women tended to only exercise because it was expected of them; that there were certain physical fitness standards that needed to be in place. Very few enjoyed a brisk morning run. Those who did were clearly masochistic. But this exercise would certainly benefit the naval aviator standing before him who sought to return to the cockpit of his F-14A Tomcat.

Commander Nakamura was certainly not unfit. He was a muscular specimen of a naval aviator especially for an Asian though it was clear that the period of inactivity from the gym was affecting his build. Commander Nakamura with his five foot ten height and two hundred ten pound build was on the upper end of his BMI and it was his muscularity and chiseled body that kept him from being labeled as obese. The captain handed Meg several tubes of antibiotic cream and what amounted to a weeks worth of sterile dressings. "Lieutenant JG. I don't presume to know the current status between the two of you but it would help if you would change his dressings every time he showers. Check back with me should you run out during the course of the week."

"Yes, sir. I presume it's cleaning out the wound; applying antibiotic creme and replacing the sterile dressing?" Meg asked. "Is using soap around the area going to irritate the wound in any way shape or form?" Animal was surprised that she was readily taking charge of his wound care,however it had to be understandable. Meg was his girlfriend and his care was foremost in her mind. She wanted him to excel in his career and she loved him so understandably she'd always want the best for him.

When they'd so passionately kissed on the deck of the VOQ., he'd barely had an inkling of what lay in store in terms of their relationship and it had progressed so rapidly culminating in not only living together but having the most intimate of encounters; passionate love-making sessions that left them pining for more as they finished with shuddering pleasure. Not only were they coupling physically, they were together emotionally; their path heading towards a lifetime spent together.

But for all that, he was an aviator. Part of him was always going to be in the cockpit of his Tomcat. That was his career, just as JAG and becoming the best lawyer that she could be was hers. She knew that her boyfriend's career was headed for stars. There was no doubt about that. When he'd made that stand on Hill 175, his path to high command had unfolded before him.

But it wasn't the hero that she saw in him; it was the vulnerable man; the orphan who'd clawed his way up from the depths of his third year of university when he'd lost everyone that ever mattered to him; pushed his way out of that misery and achieved. He had worked hard for everything that he had, paid his dues and was now harvesting the successes of a career spent defending what he believed in.

It was also the tender lover, whose very caress lit a passionate fire within her that burned hotter than anything that she'd ever experienced. Their intimacy spoke of a joining on a level much deeper than purely physical.

Meg moved closer to Animal and they both nodded when Captain Sharpley gave them directions to the radiology department at the hospital. Upon exiting his appointment, Animal and Meg headed off to Radiology so that Animal could get his x-rays done.

It was a bit of a wait once they got there. Most in the waiting room were enlisted and Animal was the senior ranking person as well as officer in the room so he had to tell a number of the people who'd hopped up to attention from their seated position to "as you were..." in order to keep them from further aggravating their own injuries. Animal looked over at his watch. It had just rounded 1100hrs and he was sure they'd be out of the x-rays by 1145hrs.

"Commander Nakamura?" The enlisted attendant, a chief in khakis and anchor on his collars, silver winged caduceus on left breast pocket under his ribbons stepped up to him clipboard held in the crook of his arm. "We can take you in right now, sir."

Animal nodded gratefully. Meg had gotten up out of her seat. She was coming to the back with him. When the Chief Hospital Corpsman had taken them around the back through one of the multitude of corridors in the office, he pointed to a change-room handing him an open-backed hospital gown. "Sir, for the x-ray you have to change out of your uniform into the hospital gown; you cannot have anything metal in your pockets, keys coins,your insignia, cell-phone etc."

Meg grinned at him. "I'll hold on to it for him..." she informed the HMC (Chief Hospital Corpsman) who nodded. Not even batting an eyelash, the HMC ushered them

Into the room and left them stating that he'd come get them when the machine attendant was ready to take the commander for the x-rays.

"Hmmm..." Meg mused, "Nice..." a smile on her face as she watched Animal strip to his skivvies pulling off his khaki trousers and shirt leaving on only his socks and underwear. Meg gave him a smirk. "Guess they don't need this off..." she noted, her smile turning wicked, reaching out with her fingers brushing him briefly causing Animal to react visibly to her his legs and flushing with acute embarrassment.

"Yeah," he said hoping that his reaction would dissipate of its own accord...quickly. "I don't think they need to x-ray that far down."

She stood up and leaned in, her tone sultry and breathy, "At least they aren't asking for a sample..." she purred in his ear. Nope, any hopes of hiding his reaction just vanished. Oh, the woman was a deliciously evil tease and he loved her so much. Evidently his briefs had become a little too tight.

It was about ten minutes later that the HMC finally returned to tell them that the radiology attendant was ready to take him.

Meg walked over to the x-ray room with Animal and then watched from the shielded section of the room.

"Sir, if you can stand sideways so that your left shoulder is up against the panel and...hold still..." whirrrr-THUNK! Beep-beep. "OK, Sir, if you can turn so that your chest is against the panel and your left shoulder is up against that marked off square. Sir, hold still..." CLUNK...beep... THUNK! "Very good sir, last one. Back up against the panel left shoulder on the square, just a little to your right so that I can center it. OK...sir, that's good...hold..." BANG...THUNK! Beep! Whirrrrr-KERTHUNK! "OK, sir, you're all done. You can get changed again, sir..." the attendant lifted a thumbs up

"You sure that thing isn't on it's last legs?" Animal asked facetiously as he stepped off the x-ray machine. "I'd have sworn something shook loose."

"Budget cutbacks, sir...". The attendant grinned.

"Ah..." Animal said knowingly, "so machine calibration is done once every three years instead of every year."

When he'd gotten changed, he and Meg headed back out. Meg had to head over to the office but figured that they needed to grab some food on the way there.

"Beltway Burgers just opened up near the main gate." Meg commented as they drove towards the Washington Navy Yard. "We can stop there and grab a bite to eat to take with us." It was rounding 1235hrs which meant she was going to have to wolf down her food. So that they could make it to the office by 1300hrs.

Two cheeseburgers; a large fries and a double large Coke apiece; they were on their way back to JAG Headquarters. Both officers handed over their IDs and once waved through they parked in the underground parking. Picking up their food they headed to the office. Checking in with the Master Chief Legalman who was in charge of matters for the admiral to let AJ know that Animal's matter had been attended to and Lieutenant JG Austin was back in the office. It would keep the admiral from questioning where she was.

Harm evidently smelled the fries from his office. "Hey did someone go to..." he sniffed the air poking his head into the office, "...Beltway Burgers? Do I smell fries...?" Harm

grinned widely.

"What makes you think you're getting any?" Meg riposted as she tucked her fries closer to her body.

Animal glowered his best senior officer scowl that he could muster which was hard with a mouthful of fries.

Harm found it hard to not snicker since Animal looked like a little chihuahua defending his dinner dish.

"It came from the Beltway Burgers just a block away from the main gate." Meg informed him. "If you want any you can get yourself some from there. We haven't eaten since morning."

Disappointed that he couldn't sneak a fry or six, Harm said "OK...I'm gonna go get myself some fries and a salad. They can't mess up a salad too badly. I have to tell the admiral that I'm taking a late lunch. All my files are in with the admiral and I'm headed off to La Jolla."

"Well, you have a good time on leave, Harm." Animal grinned at him.

"Thanks. Animal, you know Mom asks about you. I haven't told het the latest insanity you've gotten yourself into." Harm informed him.

"Good thing, Hammer, she might have a heart attack".

Harm laughed. Poor Trish always watched over Harm's friends just as much as she did her own son and the risks that Animal took while in combat would have made her suffer a myocardial infarction ten times over. And Animal's blue button exploit was one that Harm intended to keep a tight lid on. He didn't want his mother having an apoplectic fit.

Meg sighed. She knew that she had a number of case files needing to be given over to the admiral to oversee, however she hoped to be done far before secure.

Harm made his exit since he was hungry. Meg and Animal demolished their food and Meg got busy with doing consolidation of her files so that she could hand them over to the admiral.

Busy wasn't the word for the stack of cases. She was helping deal with regular items like delay of pay, housing and other operational matters that required a judge advocate well-versed in civil law matters. Which meant that she was dealing with a bigger case load than Harm who was strictly a prosecuting attorney and legal investigator. Meg's cases were small but numerous and hence they required a lot more time for paperwork.

"I should be done in about two hours." Meg informed him as Animal finished demolishing his second cheeseburger. He was on medical leave thus he had no responsibilities whatsoever. The only stipulation was that if he was on a military installation he was duty-bound to wear a uniform to identify himself and to behave in accordance with the dress, deportment and gravity of a commissioned officer in the United States Navy obeying all ceremonies and requirements contained within his oath of office.

Meg was busily halving her caseload before turning over her cases. She wanted the ones she was close to clearing out of the way before turning over the rest to RADM Chegwidden. Many of these were civil matters requiring a signature of a lawyer or an affidavit attesting to a legal document. So those were able to be dealt with. The time sensitive cases she put in a separate pile with a Post-It for the Admiral to disseminate to an attorney who could continue on with that case. And the ones that needed minding went on the bottom attached to the pile was a concise précis of what each case was and how it needed to be dealt with.

When the pile was finished it was around 1545hrs. She gathered the pile of done cases and the ones that needed minding or dissemination, excused herself while Animal sat in her office quietly and headed over to see the admiral.

Pounding the pine, she waited until told to enter, "Admiral, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Meg Austin, I have the cases that you asked me to prepare. I have completed all those that require only a brief notation, or signature and closed the file. These are in this pile, the others require minding and are in two separate files: ones that are time-sensitive and require dissemination to another lawyer as they need to be wrapped up within the time that I am on leave, the others can be minded during my leave and I can resume them upon my return. Sir" she finished.

AJ was impressed that the young Lieutenant Junior Grade was able to get that all out in one or two breaths. "Very well, Lieutenant Austin. Very efficient use of your time. I'll make sure that these are all dealt with in the appropriate manner." AJ acknowledged her work. "I believe you can secure. Lieutenant Commander Rabb has secured and left." He looked up at Meg. "I presume Commander Nakamura is with you?"

"Yes, sir".

"He has seen the doctor at Bethesda?"

"This morning, sir, I have the antibiotics and sterile bandages entrusted in my care at his physician's request." AJ's eyebrows raised at that.

"You are taking care of his wounds between checkups?" He asked.

Meg nodded, "Yes, sir."

AJ nodded silently. The relationship between his subordinate and the naval aviator commander was more serious than he'd expected. But Meg was an adult fully capable in dealing with the affairs of her heart. "Well, you enjoy your leave, Lieutenant." The admiral finally stated.

"I will, sir. I will see you in fourteen days time, sir."

"Dismissed...".

"Aye-aye, sir!" Meg came to attention, then about faced, striding with quick strides towards the door. Upon exiting the admiral's office, she shut the door behind her and headed for her office.

Animal stood when she entered her office, "...so..." he began.

"I'm all ready for leave, the admiral has my files and I can enjoy my fourteen days." Meg sighed as she moved closer to him and stated, "We still have Chinese food left-overs and all we really need are drinks. I don't think a brief stop at a convenience store will Uniregs to the point where we'd get cited." She gathered up her handbag, and her briefcase and smiled at Animal. "I want to go home and the admiral allowed me to secure. Lieutenant Commander Rabb's already secured." She informed him.

"I knew it had to be..." Animal grinned. "It was way too quiet." He shot a brief look towards the general direction of Harm's office.

Next day they'd be able to be in civvies. But right now they had to get home. The burgers and fries had been delicious after downing every last bite, but he was getting to the point where his stomach was starting to yearn for dinner and some more Chinese left-overs awaited.

1635HRS; EST; MEG'S APARTMENT; CAPITOL HILL CREST APARTMENTS; NAVY YARD DISTRICT; WASHINGTON DC

Meg unlocked the door to her studio apartment and turned on the light as Animal brought in the bag with sodas in. Opening the fridge, he deposited the 2L bottles of soda. Meg and Animal preferred the blue and red logo of their favorite cola. But deigned to drink the other brand especially if it was on sale. It wasn't this time. They stopped by a Kroger on the way home and picked up several bottles including Wild Cherry Pepsi. It certainly would keep them happy.

Upon putting the sodas in the fridge to cool, they set about disrobing from their uniforms so that they could get the uniforms cleaned. The Winter uniform shift was coming up in October and they needed to get their dress blues ready for that change-over.

Meg was busy in the kitchen after getting changed making sure that glasses, plates and silverware were prepped for dinner. Portions of Chinese food were carefully placed on plates and microwaved so that it was warmed and ready to eat.

Dinner was eaten quickly with not much conversation and they washed the dishes quickly. When they were finished and dried, Meg gave Animal a grin, "Tosh?" She said closing the distance with him giving him a low-lidded glance, "Did...we at some point discuss a rain-check on a shower or something?" Her voice was a low purr.

"I seem to recall something to that effect..." Animal replied, trailing off as Meg's lips were a fraction of an inch apart from his.

Her lip corners curled upwards in a smile, "mind if I call it in?" She said wrapping her arms around him and tightening her embrace, brushing her lips along his mouth, pressing her body against his eliciting a reaction the caused her eyes to widen. She pushed against him nuzzling him like a cat.

Animal growled low in his throat, "I don't mind in the slightest."

She released him and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the bathroom and shower. Once in the bathroom, she started divesting him of his clothes, showering him with kisses over every inch of his body.

Animal was trying his best to remove every bit of clothing that Meg had on too. When they were both naked, they had ended up. In the shower.

Turning the shower on, Meg turned to him giving him a passionate kiss that he could feel all the way from his head to his toes and where her hand was exploring, made him feel very happy indeed. Yes Meg made him a very happy man.

Pulling him under the pounding cascade of water so that they both got thoroughly drenched, Meg washed him slowly as he returned the favour. Her fingers were magical, Animal thought to himself.

Then Meg turned around, her back facing him as Animal dropped kisses on her shoulders. Meg's fingers encircled him and pulled him towards her. Animal thought he heard over the sound of the shower a throaty moan; which he deciphered as Meg's entreaty to take her. Guiding him, she inhaled deeply as she accommodated him and then sighed, "Love me, Tosh. Let me feel good..." Nothing more needed to be said as the noise of the shower obscured Meg's passionate cries as they made love. Animal's hands were on Meg's hips and she pushed back against his every forward push.

Her ecstasy was heightened by the sensation of water pouring over her skin in the shower. And eventually they both reached their peak and fell off the edge of the cliff.

"Yes...Tosh, just like that..." she turned and wrapped her arms around him. When her breathing returned to normal, she murmured, "I don't think we really got clean, did we?"

"Nope."

"Then how about we wash up?" Meg suggested, handing him her shampoo bottle. Animal grinned back at her.

After washing each other, they decided to take their passions back to the bed. And after that they fell asleep yet again unclothed, nestled closely together, a couple content in the exploration of the amatory side of their relationship.

And wrapped themselves in the sheets as the moonlight shone through the upper half of the floor to ceiling windows of their suite.


	3. Locating Wheels

**MEG'S APARTMENT; CAPITOL HILL CREST APARTMENTS NAVY YARD DISTRICT; WASHINGTON DC **_**September 14, 1994; 0500hrs**_

When Animal first stirred from sleep; it was 0500 by the clock on the dresser. Animal noticed that there was nothing between him and the sheets…essentially he was naked and then looking over; he found Meg curled up beside him facing towards him comfortably asleep, her arm draped across his chest…and her shoulders were bare, equally unclothed…well of course he could feel that since her entire body was pressed up against him; the feel of her breasts against his side; her right leg casually draped over his upper legs; her warm core up against his thigh – the soft feminine curls brushing his thigh letting him know that there was nothing between her and Animal at all. He sighed softly and lay back to try to drift back to sleep; if his internal body clock would let him. And it did let him. The next time he awoke it was 0730hrs and Meg's blue eyes were gazing down at his torso…assessing his unclothed condition with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Morning, Tosh…" she murmured softly, "I see you didn't get woken up by nightmares last night or the night before."

"I didn't…" Animal confirmed. "Maybe it was my body trying to tell me something over the past few weeks." He looked at her in response, "Maybe it was the fact that my body was letting me know that it was scared that I would get myself killed before…" he paused…breathing out slowly…and trying to settle himself with letting himself admit what he was scared of… "I could ever find someone to love…"

Meg wrapped her arms over his upper torso and laid her head on his chest. "Tosh, you have me…" she whispered to him, "…for life…" Animal looked at her; something in his eyes told Meg that he felt that he'd come home…that he was now secure…not alone for the first time ever since his parents had passed away sixteen years ago.

"I love you, Meg…" he whispered to her and she met his gaze with a smile that filled him with peace and happiness.

She reached over and rested the palm of her hand against his cheek and murmured, just loud enough for him to hear, "I love you too, Tosh…" And she pulled him over her again…to seal her confirmation of their love for each other with another slow, sensual love-making session that culminated in yet another mind-blowing pinnacle of ecstasy. And the smile on each other's faces was confirmation enough that they had found in each other the perfect other half.

Morning in their combined household now consisted of a shower to wash off the sweat that they had accumulated during their morning love-making session. Meg stood in the shower with her back against Animal's chest; a wicked grin on her face; as she pressed her hind-quarters against his torso letting her feel his reaction against her upper thighs. "Like that, do you?" she purred. Animal could definitely confirm that Meg was not the innocent Lieutenant JG at home. She was a passionate young woman with needs and wants…and what she wanted right now…would probably have him saying Acts of Contrition for the next six months straight. And oh…God…did he ever want her.

At least the shower obscured any sounds of their coupling so the neighbors would never know just how loud it got in there during their exploration of their heights of passion. Eventually they knew that they would have to get out of there and get on with the rest of their day; but it certainly was with reluctance to leave their comfortable shower.

When they had finally got on some civilian clothes; Meg in jeans and a white blouse and Animal in his jeans and a t-shirt; they both tried to figure out what they had to do in terms of getting things that they would need. Animal brought most of his toiletries from the carrier; and he did have a storage locker, but that was on the other side of the country in California; and well, Meg only had two weeks of leave; so retrieving that was out of the question at the moment unless she wanted to use up her last four weeks of banked leave time and travel with him to the other side of the country to retrieve his stuff. Animal was technically on "medical leave" according to BuPERS and that medical leave would not be counted against his currently banked leave which at fourteen years of service was somewhere around thirty eight weeks of banked leave which due to the fact that he hadn't had any family to go to; he didn't bother using and kept up continuous service from the time he left flight-school to now. It just meant that he would have a hefty leave to draw from if he ever decided to take leave. As for right now, he preferred to bank it and keep it in reserve for emergency situations.

Of course he had a different solution; he was going to have the items shipped over to the East Coast. It would probably be a hefty amount; close to $650.00 to have it shipped, but Tosh hadn't really gone on a spending spree with his money and he'd pretty much banked close to all of his pay; except for what he'd had to pay in taxes. He had a pretty decent chunk of change in his bank account. And if he got it shipped he could figure out what to do with it. And one of the things that Meg and Animal were realizing was that her one-bedroom suite was small…exceedingly small when it came to two people; even for a couple that shared the same bed room. Would it mean that they would have to consider buying a bigger place so that they had an office to utilize and a slightly bigger living area – bathroom, bedroom, kitchen. Perhaps a two or three bedroom apartment would work. But of course DC prices were astronomical so they would seriously have to consider somewhere that wasn't so expensive, yet within easy commuting distance to the Navy Yard or wherever the Navy decided to put the JAG HQ Annex down the road.

He had most of the uniforms that he didn't take on deployment in storage in California; all it would take was to get them over to the East Coast then to the PX and have them outfitted with his current rank. He had a few more service whites, his dinner dress whites that he would be wearing to Meg's office Christmas party; and his dress whites that he would be wearing to the Navy/Marine Corps ball; which for the first time in his life, he'd be attending with a plus one; his beloved Meg. And he was still surprised at how quickly that their relationship had come about and culminated in those passionate coupling sessions. And he was grateful; since both their hearts felt they found their other half in life. He also had a few more service dress blues which he was going to need, since it was coming up to October and the resultant change-over from summer to winter service dress. And he was going to have to go over to the PX to get a few more of his uniform braids changed from Lieutenant Commander to Commander and he figured that he'd better get that done before the dress changeover. And of course, his uniform overcoat; both the summer-weight and winter-weight still had his lieutenant commander's shoulder-boards, which he would have to consider changing over to his new rank.

"I thought you were on your way to La Jolla? Harm". Meg's exclamation while holding the phone caused Animal to look up curiously. "Oh...flights are booked solid and you can't get out until Thursday at the latest? So that's why you're calling me and bugging me? Oh, you just may beg off going to see your Mom because of the delays into your leave-time? Is that it?" Meg smirked holding the receiver as she paced around the room while Animal just shook his head, chuckled and went back to doing what it was that he needed to do.

"Yes, Harm…things are going well…" Meg was saying; mainly because the phone was ringing off the hook, and she'd had to answer it while she was trying to grab something together for the both of them to eat for breakfast, while Animal was figuring out what arrangements he would have to make in order to make sure that his stuff came out from California where he was stationed with the Pacific Fleet; there had been noises of sending VF-41 back to the Atlantic Fleet, but it was still primarily noises. "He's making arrangements to get his stuff shipped over from California. Yes, Harm, he's with me…no I didn't want him staying at a hotel; it costs too much in DC. Harm; that's a need to know and you don't need to know. Oh, right…I know…where your mind is going…now knock it off…" Animal thought he heard a chuckle on the other end of the line. There was no _sirs_, since this was an informal call. "Harm, don't you have some work to do, like trying to make sure that you can book that flight out of DC to San Diego?" Yeah…that definitely was a laugh on the other end of the line. "Alright, Harm, I'll see you in two weeks…after my leave finishes…" Meg muttered; "that damned man" after she hung up. Animal looked up at Meg with a curious expression. "He was fishing for details on what we were doing…I told him that was a need to know and he didn't need to know…and he kept asking so I told him to knock it off…" She shook her head, "Like I'm going to tell him what we were doing…" she muttered crossly, "His head would probably explode…and I'd get stuck having to clean that mess up…" Animal laughed; Harm certainly knew when to push it. Meg came over; wrapped her arms around Animal's waist as he was sitting down writing down everything that he needed to get done, "Figured out all the logistics of getting your stuff over here?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so…It's probably going to cost me at least six hundred and fifty to seven-hundred to ship all my stuff. I had a storage locker filled with uniforms and CDs and my stereo from my previous deployment if it still works. That's pretty much the entirety of my possessions; stuff to listen to; stuff to wear."

"Might be interesting shuffling through your CD collection…" Meg commented.

"Yeah, if you like the great Masters…" Animal replied. Meg looked at him curiously. "Y'know…Handel, Bach…Vivaldi, Albinoni…"

"Oh…so you listen to classical music." Meg asked. "I've never listened to classical music before…most of mine is country…or soft rock." This was a side of Animal that she hadn't known about and it was curiosity that had made her inquire about his taste in music.

"It's something that I got from my dad…he'd either have it playing at the Laundromat or at home." Animal said looking up at her from his seated position in the chair. "My dad always loved listening to classical music. I just took it a little further and decided to stick to a certain genre…in this case being Baroque."

"You certainly have depth to you…" Meg said leaning in and giving Animal a soft kiss on the cheek, "I wouldn't have expected that a fighter pilot could be a classical music aficionado."

Animal grinned at her, "Well, you know what they say about judging a book by its cover…" He smirked at her as he looked deeply into Meg's eyes. She smirked back at him caressing his face with slender fingers.

When they'd finished eating breakfast they figured out what needed to be done; firstly it was trying to find Animal a mode of reliable transportation, since Meg would need to use her car for work. First stop was the Virginia DMV which would give Animal a state license automatically since he would be residing in Virginia and he already had a license to drive in California. Animal's original driver's license was from New York State, but well, he'd been shuffled around by the Navy to the West Coast and now the East Coast; then it would be off to a dealership to find something reliable with four wheels and an engine that wouldn't conk out after six months. Then after lunch, they'd head over to a shipping company and pay them what it cost to get something picked up and shipped from the storage locker that Animal had specified so that he'd have his uniforms with him.

At least the Navy was efficient and had the ribbons listed on his personnel jacket so he'd be able to update his rack with the new ribbon; the Purple Heart, that had been awarded to him. Hopefully he'd never have the need to put a gold star on that ribbon; he was going to try to avoid ever getting shot _in the line of duty again_. And his shoulder twinged in empathy with that assertion. He'd had one rack converted over; the one that was on his summer whites, and he'd been transferring that rack over from his whites to his service dress blues. And of course he would have to pick up the mini-medal for his new decoration at the PX so that he could add it to his rack on his dinner dress whites. Oh, there were a lot of things that he had to take care of. Not to mention he needed to get covers; mostly for his khakis. One and a spare; and a spare for his whites and service dress blues; at least it wouldn't be such an undertaking when he got his O-6 rank since the head-dress was the same. But assembling his rack and dealing with his covers could wait until he had transportation of his own. He could grab that stuff when he went to the PX at Bethesda Naval Medical Center on Friday; He'd wear his overseas cap when he went to see the doctor at Bethesda. And he figured that he'd better check and make sure that he had an O-5 insignia on his overseas cap. If he was going in khakis to Bethesda, they would have to be service dress khakis replete with the ribbons, rank devices and his designator insignia; had to look official.

Then Meg and he would probably spend the afternoon relaxing; if not having to grocery shop, and getting comfortable with each other; smiling to himself that they'd certainly gotten extremely comfortable with each other. "We need to get you some more civilian clothes…" Meg informed him, "So after we finish up at the dealership picking up your car; you can follow my car and we can get you to the mall and we can get some clothes for you, so that you have other clothes to wear other than your uniform on your days off." She gave him a self-satisfied grin. Men didn't like clothes-shopping at all. Their idea of clothes-shopping was to find something that fit; make sure that it was the proper size; pay for it and get the hell out of the store and by connection; the mall. Meg, on the other hand, would probably want to graze every clothing store that would cater to male clothing for him and have him try on several different shirts, pants, ties, t-shirts; shorts…etc…that would make certain that he'd be in the mall for a couple of hours; no, make that a couple of PAINFUL hours.

Meg had probably read his mind about the size of her, or was it _**their,**_ apartment now. "I think we should also run by the realtor's office and see if we can find something that probably might be a bit bigger than what we're currently in now…" she suggested. "I don't know about you, but this place is only fit for one person."

"Might be interesting to see just what is available provided that it's reasonably priced." Animal agreed looking up at her in contemplation of her reaction. "I know that this place has been a comfortable place of refuge for you…and it's probably a pain to uproot…" he said.

"But it just doesn't fit the both of us…comfortably and well, it might be nice to have a little more space…to work in…I'm kind of tired working on my case files on the bed. It might be nice to have a home office…so a two or three bedroom would work…quite nicely." Meg explained to Animal as he nodded at her reasoning. "Plus…" she smirked at him, "I'm just finding just how tight of a squeeze it is in that tub…" she batted her eyelashes at him, "especially when two people are in the tub at the same time…so…"

"A walk-in-shower with enough space…" Animal gave her a ribald grin.

"mmm…hmmm…" Meg nodded returning the grin.

"I like how you think…" Animal grinned at her.

"I'm sure you do…" she purred leaning in to nibble the top of his ear, "Now we'd better get on the road if we want to get to the DMV before the line is out the door and around the corner." She said decisively as she picked up her purse from the table and grabbed her car keys. Animal had a big grin on his face. She certainly knew how to press his right buttons.

"And…about three quarters of the way around the block…" Animal snickered as he got up to follow her. His wallet had been transferred from his whites to his jeans pocket. The DMV was always crowded from the moment that the doors were open to the time they shut for the day. Anytime he'd gone to the DMV to renew his license, he'd had to wait for a couple of hours and he was certain that it would be the same today.

_**Department of Motor Vehicles Licensing Office; Fairfax VA; September 14, 1994; 1045hrs**_

Surprisingly the Fairfax Virginia DMV office wasn't as busy as they'd thought and Animal was able to get in…from there it was about a twenty minute wait in order to talk to someone at the counter and she was able to get him to get photographed for the license photo. "So…you can continue to use your California driver's license for the next six months just in case something happens to your new state license in the mail and you don't receive it but ordinarily you should receive your Virginia Driver's License in the next two weeks; watch for it in the mail and make sure that you get it into your hands as quickly as possible…there's been instances of the licenses being stolen from the mailboxes. Just letting you know…"

"Thank you…I'll make certain that I keep an eye out for it." He turned to Meg, "Well, that didn't take long." He grinned at her. "Now…I guess it's off to the dealership and well…I'm sure it might take them a few hours to prep the vehicle so clothes shopping between then and vehicle pickup" he asked…hoping to put a time-limit to the clothes-grazing. No such luck.

Meg looked at him; grinned and said, "No… after the dealership it's lunch…then over to the shipping company to make sure that your stuff gets over from the West Coast to the East Coast."

Animal looked over at her and grinned, "I'm not going to get out of clothes shopping, am I?"

Meg gave him a self-satisfied look, "Nope…definitely not…" she affirmed; oh she was going to enjoy this. It was nice to have a significant other to spend time with. And she could sense that his resistance was just for show. He loved spending time with her too.

"So…dealership it is…" Animal said as he slipped into the passenger seat of Meg's car. Animal wasn't sure what kind of car he was looking for and told Meg so as they drove down towards the auto-mall. It was certainly an idea to get a Corvette, but the cost of a 94 Corvette was quite expensive. And most naval aviators tended to like driving those things; Harm included. Animal wanted to see if he could find something sporty; but not as flashy as the Corvette. He'd been eyeing a Camaro or a Trans Am. It was nice, fast, not too flashy, but still looked sporty…and had a nice growl to the engine. It was either that or a Ford Mustang GT. Evidently September, the new 95s were starting to come into the lot and the lot was having a lot of clearance sales going on to try to get rid of the previous year's stock. He was starting to wonder if he might be able to get a good deal on a new car or whether he should try getting a 94 model.

When they pulled into the GM/Pontiac/Chevrolet dealership; as Animal was saying that he preferred GM vehicles since his late dad had driven GM; GMC specifically since his dad, before his death, had driven a two-door GMC Sierra pickup truck; it helped pick up all the items that they needed for their Laundromat, since they bought the laundry soap in bulk as well as other items that they had needed for the business. They had done a lively drop-in-business and had managed to build up a clientele. When they had died, Animal had had to have a real estate agency deal with the selling of the business since he was on deployment and they had wired the proceeds of the sale of the business into his Navy account. Also there was a decent amount of money that he'd inherited from his mother and father and that was also banked for the future. The Nakamuras weren't rich by any means, but his father and mother had worked their whole lives and had saved as much as they could, so that their son would have a nest egg to start life with if anything happened to them. So that combined enabled Tosh to not have to worry about finances too much, but he was frugal; he tried to not spend very much at all if he could possibly avoid it. The Navy however required certain expenditures and he bought those out of his pay as much as possible. However if he couldn't, he drew on the savings, but tried to put it back as soon as he was financially able to. And that was what kept him financially afloat. In fact, this car would be the first one that he'd ever bought. Most times, he hadn't needed a car since he lived in the BOQ when he wasn't on deployment and when he was, he had no need of accommodation expenditure since his place of work was the accommodation.

When they got out of the car, Animal looked over a lineup of nice looking Camaro Z28s. Some he noticed had the 95 sticker on them. One especially a metallic blue Camaro Z28 95 model year, looked appealing to him. He noticed that under the hood was a 350 LT1 V8; 460 horses under the hood; and lots of power. And on top of that, he looked in the driver's side window; it was an automatic transmission; not manual. Unlike most sports car drivers, Animal didn't particularly care for fiddling around with a stick-shift. He just preferred to mash on the gas pedal and let 'er rip. And if you timed your pedal shifts in tune with the engine…you could tell when the transmission was going to shift and then you'd accelerate like a bat out of hell. Meg was looking at him with a smile on her face as his face lit up as he was looking at the car.

"You look like you're about to drool…Tosh…" she smirked at him. He grinned back at her.

"I think I found 'er…" he said, "Now all I have to do is negotiate down the price…" he looked at the sticker price. $28,995 US, "Think I could get 'er for 25K?" Meg shrugged her shoulders.

"Gotta have some good lawyer-negotiation skills for that…sweetheart…" Meg said giving him a sunny smile; she couldn't wait to hear the negotiation on this one.

"So how kin I help ya folks today?" This guy looked like a stereotypical car salesman; slicker than a boiled onion and probably about as slippery as one too. "So…who's buyin' the car today?" he drawled. Was this guy from Texas, 'cause he sounded like he'd moved from there to DC yesterday.

Animal was so tempted to use pidgin English on him. _So I rooking for car…fast car…_"Yeah…I am…" Animal commented briefly. "This one looks like a nice one…she's got some nice horses under the hood." That should give the guy the impression that I know my engines… "So…any chance I can get a test-drive of this beauty; see how she handles?"

The guy looked at him with a _guess ya must be the guy that's lookin' to buy…not sure if I'm sure you're capable of handling this…car but what the heck…_ look. Animal gave him a cheerful grin; the one where he was trying to put one over on someone that he wasn't as bright as he really was. It came in very useful for making subordinates think that he was a little slow on the uptake before he dropped a 2000lb'r LGB on their heads. "Well, I think I can get you a test-drive…think you can handle this puppy?" The salesperson's tone was sceptical.

"So long as it wags its tail and it has a good temperament, I should be fine, sir…" Animal replied with a barely perceptible evil glint in his eye. "I've had to deal with cats before…" he smirked.

"Well, a cat is a completely different temperament than this puppy; this one will bite if you don't keep a good leash on it…" The salesperson stated as he turned to go in to grab the keys.

Meg, though she hadn't been with Animal for that long, figured that he was cooking up something and wondered if she should warn the salesperson to not test Animal's patience and decided against it…_the guy's getting himself into this if he continues to prod my boyfriend. If the guy was too obtuse to notice my boyfriend's military hair cut, then he deserves what he's going to get out of him. This idiot doesn't know what 'cats my boyfriend deals with…not the type that just anyone can handle._

The salesman came back out with the keys, "Well, managed to convince my manager to let you take a test drive. You think you're good with it."

"I think so…" Animal gave Meg a wink as he offered her the back seat…in the car.

And when they pulled out of the lot, Animal did so; sedately at a grandmotherly like pace. Meg figured that he was going to put the salesperson to sleep.

"Well, didn't want to let those horses get outta control, y'know…" Animal said casually to the salesperson.

"Well, she'll put out a bit more speed…" the salesperson said looking around outside the window, "So what is it that you two do for a livin'?"

"Well, I spend a lot of time on boats…" Animal grinned; looking up at the mirthful look on Meg's face through the rear-view mirror. "…that's when I'm not hanging out with my girlfriend." …_who's enjoying every minute of this right now…_

"So you sail…" the guy figured he was one of those rich Asians with lots of money to drop.

"Yeah…I fly a bit too…"

"Which airline…"

"Government contract…" Animal replied…vaguely. By this time Meg was trying not to crack up laughing in the back-seat.

"So…" the salesperson was impressed…"So you work for the government?"

"Yup…makes decent enough coin…" Animal grinned, letting the salesman know that it shouldn't be a problem; that he'd be able to afford the vehicle.

"so what do you do, Miss?" the salesperson asked.

"I work for the government…" Meg replied just as vaguely.

"Oh…so that's where you two met?" At least he figured that they were together.

"Yep…" Animal replied.

By this time he had gone a ways. "Sure you want to keep drivin' this slow? She'll put out some good horsepower."

"OK…if you're sure…" Animal grinned evilly and Meg figured that she'd better buckle up tighter…because Animal was going to show this salesperson just what he was able to do with a car…which was much slower than what he usually controlled.

That V8 roared as Animal mashed down the gas pedal kicking the Camaro up to 100 down the freeway; "Testing the maneuverability…" he grinned as he hit the turn signal and changed lines, right in front of a semi-trailer that gave him a surprised honk due to the abrupt lane change; the turbo-chargers roared as Animal kicked up the speed to 120mph and cut back across two lanes after signalling taking the next exit; rapidly checking the rear-view mirror and changing lanes rapidly but safely into the traffic flow…and about five minutes later deftly cut the wheel and brought the Camaro to a stop.

"Well, you sure kin handle that puppy…" the salesman looked a little pale. "You said you fly?"

"Yup…" said Animal grinning at him,

"I take it you fly something high-performance, judging from your situational awareness?"

"Yup…" Animal grinned, "The government entrusts me with some pretty high-performance aircraft, sir." The salesman was now paying a lot more attention to the Asian guy that was standing in front of him. His t-shirt was covering up a pretty nasty set of bandages…that looked like they were covering a wound of some sort.

"You service? 8th Cavalry, here…" the man said, volunteering his own service record. Animal grinned at him and nodded.

Meg grinned. Tosh had woken the guy up.

"Navy…" Animal volunteered.

"So I guess you fly off flat-tops…huh?" The salesperson said. "That's some serious shit…gotta have good reflexes for that…always was impressed by you Navy boys who could do that sorta thing. So what do you fly?"

"F-14 Tomcats, sir. Since 1982." The salesperson was impressed thinking _so those were the 'cats that he was referring to. He's right that handling those is tougher than handling a Z28 Camaro_

"Well…I'm glad you told me that you were Navy…" The salesperson said, "We'll get you that car if that's the one that you're interested in…we'll get you a good price on it. Least we could do for someone who serves our country. Might I ask where you ended up getting that injury from? I assume you're on medical leave?"

Animal looked at the salesperson. "The nastier Korea, sir…was lucky to escape with my life and the lives of the men who were with me that day."

"That Korea business is a tough one. Don't know…we've got too many wars going on…" the salesperson said. "I did my time…and went through 'Nam… Dien Bien Phu. We were pretty damned lucky to get out of that one. Mortars all around dropping in on us like rain. Explosions everywhere. The 8th was surrounded by VC and NVA regulars. Lost two of my friends over there. One got gut shot with a 7.62 from an AK-47. One round…one lucky bb and he breathed his last on the ground right by my feet. The other got his head blown off when Charlie's booby trap got him. They had a grenade rigged to go off just at shoulder height, we missed the wire…he tripped it and kaboom…we had to ship him home with his head on his chest…to Mortuary Services in Pearl so that they could put his head back on…so that we were able to get it home to his mama without the family having nightmares for the rest of their lives." The salesperson looked haunted; like he was back there where the explosions were happening. "Let's go in and get you that car…" he said looking over at Animal and at Meg. "We'll make it work. Of course it might take till Friday to get it all ready for ya…but we'll have her looking nice and neat."

"Thank you, sir." Animal said.

"I presume you must be Navy like your boyfriend here?" The man said.

"Yes, sir…" Meg replied, "Navy JAG, sir."

"JAG; Naval aviator… how you two met must have been an interesting story…" the salesman said.

"It was, sir…" Meg grinned. "And…we're writing that story as we go along, sir."

In the end, Animal managed to get the car for $23,999; well off the list price.

"I topped out as a Sergeant First Class." The man said. "I'm presuming that you two are officers…if you're a naval aviator and a JAG."

"Yes, sir…" Meg said, "Lieutenant Junior Grade…"

Animal grinned at him, "Commander…O-5 grade."

The man was impressed. "So we'll have that car ready for you by Friday noon, all cleaned up, filled up and ready to go."

"OK…I've got an appointment at Bethesda Naval Medical on Friday at 0950hrs…so we should be able to be by at noon to pick her up." Animal said. "Have to get this wing looked at and see when they can start giving me rehab to get me back to flight-status."

"Well…you're one of our frontline boys…hope they can fix that shoulder up for you…so you can get back to the fleet."

When they were done, the man stood up…shook Animal's hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Commander, Lieutenant…"

As they walked out to the car, Meg looked over at Animal who was looking rather contemplative. "Maybe I should call and make sure what the UOD is at Bethesda…I wasn't too sure…I was just planning on going in khakis, but maybe UOD is whites?"

"You might want to check that so that you're not in the wrong uniform of the day." He got a smirk from Meg.

"Now…I guess lunch?"

"Yup…then over to see what we can do about getting the rest of your uniforms shipped over." Meg grinned, she was in control and Animal had no qualms about it…other than the clothes shopping which he certainly wasn't looking forward to.

C'est la vie…


	4. Hemlock

**Chapter 4 - Hemlock**

**_**Denny's; Washington DC; 14 September 1994; 1200hrs**_**

Lunch proved to be an interesting find. They had a choice between brunch at a Denny's or just finding a Beltway Burgers along the route to a container shipping place. They had both looked at each other and said, "Yeah…Denny's…" Of course the meal was mouth-watering; the burger patty being thick with juices running off it when one bit into the burger. And the fact that Animal loved the Denny's Teriyaki Burger with a thick pineapple ring in the center of the burger – he was in seventh heaven gastronomically speaking. Meg opted to have a Southwest style burger with some spice kick to it along with a Coca Cola chaser. Animal also had them bring him out a Coke; specifically a Cherry Coke. At least it soothed the hunger pangs and let them enjoy the rest of the day.

Their next stop after eating was heading over to find a container shipping company. And they had to make sure that they could find that particular shipping company would pack up Animal's old storage locker; close up the accounts at that storage locker; cart it over to their shipping place, crate it all up and send it over to the East Coast for Animal. This, they evidently found was going to be a tougher prospect than they thought. The first two places they found wouldn't crate up the storage locker; they said that the person who owned the storage locker would have to empty the storage locker and bring the stuff to the California branch office to have them ship the stuff over. However after about five misses, they found one who catered to service people; was insured against loss and theft and also was able to send someone over from their branch office in California to close up shop on Animal's Cali storage locker and get it all packed up and shipped. "We deal with service people all the time…" was the attendant's comment. "And we try to make sure that things get to where they're needed when they need it." The cost was certainly quite a bit more than the $650-750 Animal was estimating; it was more in the $1200 range, but well, if it meant that his stuff would get there quickly, reliably and without loss; the accounts taken care of and closed; then fine. It was cheaper than a $600.00 airline ticket, a week of hotel costs and then having to pay all the shipping costs on top of that. The woman took his California storage locker key and popped it into a courier bag to send to the California office along with a shipping form and the contract for the storage locker so that it could be closed by the shipping attendant over at the California office.

"It should be here by around a week from Friday…and then you can figure out when to pick it up."

"Thank you." Animal replied…after having paid the monetary cost up front which had made his wallet hurt . It would probably mean that Meg and he would have to swing by his bank-branch to withdraw from the ATM. As Meg and Animal walked over to the car, Animal said, "Well…I guess…it's off to the mall?"

"Yup…" Meg had a bright happy look on her face and well, Animal figured that he did need some casual clothes to wear; so if it made her happy to go clothes shopping for him; well…why not?

"So, my sweet, what do you think I need for clothing? I'm putty in your hands…" he grinned at her and she gave him a smirk.

She leaned in and whispered sultrily in his ear, "Well, you certainly weren't putty last night…in my hands…" she grinned as he gave her a wicked smile. "…which was a good thing…"

As they reached Meg's car, Meg's cell phone buzzed and she answered the call, "Harm, what are you doing at the office, I thought you were at home on vacation."

Animal could hear the volume turned up on her cell-phone and caught snippets of Harm's answer "...cancelled my vacation ...not at the office...hospital...Krennick…"

"WHAT?!" Meg exclaimed as she nearly dropped the phone. "Krennick got shot…?" "Harm? What happened?" This didn't sound good at all… Animal noted Meg's concern as she tossed over her car keys to him mouthing quietly "You drive…" and returned to her conversation with Harm, "You're with Krennick? OK…I'll meet you at the hospital…" She looked over at Animal, who had by this time unlocked the door on both sides of the car.

"We're going…" Animal said as he started the car and Meg got in, still on the phone with Harm, "Which one is it?" he asked Meg,

"DC Metropolitan…" Meg turned to him informing him of their destination.

"OK…" They both got in…they may have been in civilian clothes but they had to get there…and no time to change into uniform; worry about protocol later. Animal was a competent driver, getting them there in what appeared to be no time at all. Finding a parking place only served to ramp up their worry and they were both antsy by the time they had managed to reach the emergency waiting room where a stressed and worried Harmon Rabb Jr paced the room in blood-soaked dress blues.

"Harm!?" Meg called out to him and he stopped pacing to look over at both Animal and Meg approaching him with questions clearly shown in their expressions

"Hemlock…" was all he said, his visage grim and a nod of the head towards the operating rooms where Allison Krennick was fighting for her life and the doctors were doing their best to save her.

Meg's blood ran cold. This guy was a legend in intelligence. He was an assassin with no scruples and he generally killed anyone who saw him…in other words; he left no witnesses.

"You need to be armed at all times, Meg…Animal…you too." Animal nodded at Harm's assertion. This wasn't play-time. The situation was deadly serious and he wasn't about to crack a joke about "Crockett and Tubbs". The woman who had defended him against Campbell's accusations was lying in a coma in the ICU. "Metro Police came through with these." Harm stated as he handed Meg a sheaf of papers and then handed Animal a sheaf. "Carry permits for DC…you're going to need them, because I don't know who he's seen in the JAG office and who he's got a target on…to eliminate as witnesses."

"Austin, you're still on leave…Rabb cancelled his vacation-time" AJ said, forestalling questions regarding Harm's status and why he was in uniform which were circulating through Meg's head as she noted his current attire as he walked up, "But I'm going to need you on call. If something goes down and I have to have Rabb backed up, I'm going to need you to help out."

"You've got me too, sir. Wherever she goes; I go, sir." Animal said, "If Harm needs back-up he's got us both." AJ looked over at him.

"Pointer told me that you were protective of your friends, Commander. Just be careful, I don't need you earning another Purple Heart. With this guy, it may be posthumous."

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Harm, how did this happen?" Meg asked, "How did Krennick get shot…"

"Evidently, Hemlock came in to the JAG office; in a Royal Navy Commander's uniform; asked if she could find him some information; the itinerary for some guy by the codename of Shepherd that got faxed to your fax machine and when Krennick went in there to find it, before she could turn around; he shot her twice in the back of the head while her back was turned. She flat-lined once on the operating table, but they were able to bring her back."

"Shit…" Animal swore. His blood ran cold with the fact that this guy had no second thoughts about killing those who witnessed him. Evidently Hemlock was capable of gunning them all down without batting an eyelash; a cold calculating killer.

Harm nodded, pretty much guessing at what Animal was thinking even without Animal voicing a single thought – evidently what he was thinking was plain to see as the nose on his face; "And that's why we have to be careful. I don't know who he's after…but I intend to find out." Animal looked over at Meg to see what her reaction to Harm's statement was. She shivered; anybody would; knowing that a killer was out there and if one laid eyes on him, the timer to the end of their existence was ticking and wouldn't stop until the killer was killed or the killer accomplished his task of killing them.

Meg said to Harm, "I think we can talk to someone who might know exactly who he's after. But I need to call Nevada…" Pulling out a cell-phone that looked nothing like one that Animal had ever seen before.

Harm told him, "Scrambles any calls, makes them undetectable to outside surveillance…nobody's able to pick it up or if they are they can't decipher what the call is about," Animal looked at him with a _what?_ He'd never heard about intelligence operative stuff like that. "I think she's calling Uncle".

"OK…"

When Meg was finished, her face was pale, "Uncle Ollie told me who Shepherd was…It's Yeltsin; he's supposed to be in town day after tomorrow to sign an ultra secret agreement to ban the sale of nuclear materials to Pakistan. There's only one reason for Hemlock to go after him. Hemlock wants to prevent that agreement from being signed."

"We need that itinerary…" Harm stated. "And I know just where to get it…"

**_**Naval Intelligence HQ; Washington DC; September 14, 1994; 1825hrs**_**

"Harm; you know I can't give you that information…" Lieutenant Commander Bruce Carmichael replied to Harm's request. "It's going to violate all manner of internal security for the visit."

"Would it please you to know that we'll be risking nuclear war with the Russians, if something happens to Shepherd?" Animal growled; he was in dress blues; the ones he'd worn in court; with the Commander's stripes. "If you guys hadn't screwed up and ended up faxing the damned itinerary over to Lieutenant JG Austin's fax machine, maybe Commander Krennick wouldn't be in a hospital on life support right now…or does that not faze you, Lieutenant Commander!?"

"How the hell did he learn about this? Harm?" Carmichael irately turned on Harm. Animal grabbed Carmichael by his blues slamming his back into the wall, pinning him up against the wall. "I'm two seconds from having you join Commander Krennick in ICU if you don't give me a goddamned answer…right now!" Carmichael looked down to see Animal's right hand reaching towards his pocket and his mind thought that there was an outline of an M9 in there and he looked over at Harm.

Harm casually said with a rather amused smirk on his face, "I'd answer him if I were you…Bruce…" tracing his fingernails down the palm of his hand examining them without a care in the world. "150 North Koreans found out just how nasty he can be if he gets really pissed off at you…and well…they're not breathing any more…and something tells me he's not really happy with you right now…"

"It went to my girlfriend's fax machine…" Animal snarled; his elbow up around Bruce's jugular; compressing it so that Bruce Carmichael was finding it exceedingly hard to breathe and Bruce had a morbid thought go through his head. _Less than five pounds of pressure on my jugular and…_ "And you put her square in the sights of Hemlock; it was just lucky that she was on leave when the fax came in, so she wasn't the one who got shot. If she had, you'd be saying your prayers right now because there wouldn't be a chance in hell you'd be walking out of here alive…so you either tell me what Shepherd's itinerary is so we can stop Hemlock or I start dismembering you limb by limb; your choice."

Meg grinned at Harm. "Don't worry, I got it;" she printed out a piece of paper which had times and descriptions. "Now we have a chance of protecting Shepherd;" She turned to address Animal, "Oh, sweetheart, you might want to let Lieutenant Commander Carmichael breathe again?" Bruce was starting to turn a rather disturbing shade of mauve.

"I'd suggest you count your blessings, Lieutenant Commander…" Animal growled ominously as he got in one more shake of Bruce, releasing the chokehold he had on the naval intelligence officer. "…because you sidestepped a big mistake…"

"Thank you kindly…Bruce." Harm grinned at Carmichael, who looked like he was in no condition to object to anything after Animal had roughed him up.

"It didn't come from my fax machine…" Bruce protested in between gasps of air; he was slumped over, trying to get the air back in his lungs.

"I don't think he cares, Bruce…" Harm replied casually, "And you really did put his girlfriend at risk…so I probably wouldn't have stopped him if he did decide to take it out on you. Oh, like you intelligence guys say; you didn't see us…and he didn't touch you. You have a nice day, Bruce…"

Animal fixed Bruce Carmichael with a cold stare… "I'd suggest you find out just where the leak in your office is coming from…" he snarled as the three walked out of his office. Bruce shivered…that look the commander had just given him was just about as cold as the look on face of the subject in the picture that he had of Hemlock. And he had put the commander's girlfriend at risk. So no, he wasn't going to go make a complaint about it.

**_**Embassy Row Hotel, Washington DC, 16 September 1994 1145**_**

Harm and Meg ran through the Embassy Row Hotel trying to find Hemlock; and after making it up to the room where the signing was supposed to take place, managed to get in when Bruce Carmichael showed up right behind him. "Is that him?" Meg asked just as the man looked over at her and then leveled a semiautomatic silenced pistol in her direction. Bruce shoved her out of the way and the man fired hitting Bruce in the upper chest towards the shoulder; and he went down. Pandemonium ensued as Russian security turned around and went into protective mode ushering President Yeltsin out of the room and down to the security vehicle. Hemlock dressed as Russian security followed them. Harm muttered "That's him alright…He's still going after Yeltsin; Stay with Bruce; Meg" and began a chase through the hotel food preparation area and down to the parking garage. "Animal! That's him…" He called as Animal had managed to sneak down to the garage to lie in wait, Beretta in hand, just in case that Hemlock came through. Animal ducked behind a car as Hemlock fired two shots in his direction. The shots narrowly missed him slapping into the side of the car with a pair of metallic pings; two nice holes where the shots exited through the thin steel, uncomfortably close to Animal's head.

"So much for trying to avoid getting shot at again…" Animal muttered out loud as he saw Hemlock fire a shot point blank into a Russian protective services agent. Seeing Hemlock get into a BMW, Animal cursed as Harm came running up beside Animal.

"He's in the BMW, Harm!" They both sprinted for the parking garage entrance as Harm leveled his Beretta and fired six shots into the back window of the car which shattered and the car horn went off…a steady continuous loud blare. The car came to a halt as both Animal and Harm, not letting down their guard, leveled their Berettas in order to fire if there was any movement from inside the vehicle and it started rolling back towards the pair of officers. Harm held his Beretta on the vehicle until it came to a halt beside them. They found out the reason why the car-horn didn't shut off; the man that they called Hemlock lay motionless slumped over the steering wheel; his dead weight pressing down on the horn. Hemlock physically looked like a typical assassin, non-descript, no identifying features except for his cold dead eyes…which well, they were now dead and lifeless, considering two of Harm's 9mm rounds had gone through the back of the guy's head and exited out the front of his skull. They were probably embedded in the dashboard of whoever this car belonged to. He'd hate to see the insurance claim on this one. When Harm reached in and pushed his head back…he nodded to Animal with a grim look, "It's him…"

"It's never a dull day in your line of work, is it, Harm?" Animal muttered sarcastically. Harm nodded, grinning as his mind wondered at the fact that he was able to smile so readily at a time like this, as he and Animal walked towards the elevators as they deposited their own handguns in their jacket pockets. "Meg?" Animal asked in concern,

"She's OK…Hemlock almost got a shot at her, but Bruce managed to keep her safe."

...and Harm noticed a flash of deep anger in Animal's eyes as Animal's face hardened at the mention of Carmichael. "Guess I can't knock his teeth in for putting Meg in the line of fire again, huh?"

"Probably not, Animal…he did push her out of the way and take the shot…"

"Good thing he did push her out of the way; 'cause if he didn't he'd be eating my fist…with what little teeth he has left after I knock them down his throat." Nope…no forgiveness from Animal's quarter towards Bruce; if Meg had been Harm's girl, he wouldn't either. Harm made a note to tell Carmichael to stay away from Animal if he wanted to survive to a good, healthy, old age because right now it seemed like his friend pretty much wanted to count Bruce's bones…as he ripped them one by one from his torso. Animal conceded, "Guess we'd better go see how your Navspook is doing? Make sure that he's not leaking out too badly; wouldn't want him to mess up the carpet. It'll be a bitch for the hotel to replace." He wanted to make sure that Meg was alright, rather than a concern as to Carmichael's well-being.

Harm looked over at him with a wry grin at what appeared to be a callous statement; he knew Animal didn't think too highly of Bruce Carmichael at the very moment. As they stepped out of the elevator and cell-phone reception came back, Harm noted to call AJ picking up the phone and dialling the hospital line and when he was connected and AJ had answered with a gruff "Chegwidden!" Harm informed him of the news, "We got him, sir. Hemlock's dead…"

"Good…Commander…Allison just came out of her coma…she's resting right now…"

"Good to hear, sir."

When they stepped back on to the main conference level pandemonium was in full swing. Security was rushing around trying to secure the area…Meg finally came over to Animal and Harm. "Bruce is OK…he's being sent to a hospital to get those bullet fragments out of his shoulder but he should be fine." She looked over at Animal noting that he didn't seem to overly concerned about the Navy Spook's destination, in fact, he looked relieved that he didn't have to punch Carmichael's head in. She looked at the time on her watch, "Oh, no…Honey, we missed your follow-up appointment…at Bethesda." Meg said, a note of dismay in her voice. Captain Sharpley had recommended yet another Navy physician to see Animal as far as his treatment was concerned. So between the two doctors, they would consult each other on how best to treat the injury and ensure that Animal got back up to _fighting fit_ as soon as possible.

Animal's tone was cavalier "Well, I'll just let them know that it was a matter of national security. Harm got him." She nodded.

"I'm glad you're both OK…" She didn't care who saw…she enfolded Animal with a tight embrace; not wanting to let him go.

Harm had to look away from Meg as she was holding Animal, his own heart fragmenting as he saw the lovers' tableau; although he had to inform them eventually, "Allison came out of her coma…she's resting at the hospital…"

Meg, lifting her head from Animal's shoulder, looked over at him, "That's good to hear…shall we go to the hospital and check on her?"

Harm and Animal looked at her and said in unison, "Yeah…might be a good idea."

**DC Metropolitan Hospital, Washington DC, 16 September 1994 1205hrs**

Krennick looked up at AJ, "Didn't expect to see you here, sir." Allison had a bandage wrapped around her head covering the wound where the bullets had gone in…it would take some time for them to heal.

"I didn't expect to have to visit my JAG officers in the hospital…" AJ replied. "I'm glad you're back with us."

"It will take a while, sir, but I hope to be on my feet soon, sir." She still felt groggy.

Allison looked up to see Harm, Meg at the door and then Commander Nakamura. "I didn't expect to get a whole party coming by either…My head feels like it got struck by a baseball bat…" she said softly.

Harm looked over at her, "I got him…he's dead…"

"Thank you, Harm…" Krennick looked over at him and tried to smile. "I can still see his face when I close my eyes…his eyes were lifeless…cold…like he didn't care about anyone…"

"Lieutenant Commander Carmichael got shot trying to get him. He should be OK…he's probably in operation getting the bullets out of his upper chest." Meg replied. "Harm and Tosh went after Hemlock. Harm was the one that fired on him and hit him."

"I should thank you too, Commander Nakamura…especially considering that you went after Hemlock while you were wounded as well…" Her voice sounded tired… "Yet you put yourself on the line again…to help me…"

"You get some rest, Commander…and get better" Animal said. "Meg and I have to go pick up a car…"

Commander Krennick looked over at Meg, weakly from her hospital bed…looking at the two standing close to each other "You two make a good pair, Lieutenant…" she smiled.

"Thank you, ma'am."

Animal and Meg said their goodbyes and headed out. Luckily it wasn't too far to go…since Harm said he was going to catch a ride with the admiral back to HQ. Meg and Animal had to head back to HQ in order to pick up Meg's car. "Let's call Bethesda and see if they can make a new appointment for you. And I need to get out of these blues and into a change of clothes."

Meg dialed up, "Hi…Commander? Sir, we just missed an appointment for Commander Nakamura…there was a bit of a national security issue that we had to deal with…so unfortunately Commander Nakamura was with us at the time he was supposed to be at that appointment, is there any chance that we could make a new appointment for him. Oh…at six today? Great…That would be great…I'll let him know…Thank you, sir…" she looked over at Animal with a smile on her face as she informed him of the time. "Great…we get to go over today at six…so evidently they definitely want to see you today to go over your file and the x-ray results. That's going to be interesting." Meg furrowed her brow in thought, "That's going to make it tight to grab your vehicle. We may not have time to bring the vehicle back to the apartment like I thought we would. And have time to change over to whites…so we may just have to pick up the car and go directly up to Bethesda. I'm sure that the Uniregs will allow this just once…"

**_**Meg's Apartment**_****_, _****_**Capitol Hillcrest Apartments**_****_, _****_**Navy Yard District**_****_, _****_**Washington DC**_**

Meg slipped into her civilian clothes; a light blue blouse and a jean skirt and her athletic shoes. Animal got into his summer service whites…making sure that his ribbons and shoulder-boards were properly arrayed; his white commander/captain's officer's cap looked brand new; surprisingly even when it had been worn with the whites and with the blues, it seemed to retain its nice white shininess.

"You look so good with those three stripes…" Meg gave him a kiss on the lips. There was a reason for her to wear civilian dress; it would allow her closeness to her boyfriend that she wouldn't get if she was wearing a uniform. It had to be proper decorum in uniform…considering her boyfriend was three grades higher in rank than she was. She thought to herself: _by the time I get to commander, he'll be wearing admiral's stars. _She grinned as she contemplated the thought of their continued relationship for that long of a time. It was a romantic thought that she reveled in in the heat perhaps of first love but she had a feeling that this one was for real.

Animal gave her a kiss back, "Guess we should get going and pick up that car; so that we have enough time to come back and drop off yours?"

"That's the plan…" Meg replied looking over at Animal as Meg locked the apartment door and they both headed down to the parking lot.

The trip to the car dealership wasn't too long. And they managed to pull in. "Sorry about being late…" Meg told the salesperson, "Something urgent came up that we had to deal with…"

"Oh…no problem; Lieutenant Austin…Commander Nakamura…" The salesperson addressed Animal looking him up and down, impressed by the sharp Navy uniform and the crisp new shoulder-boards that Animal was wearing. "She's all vacuumed out, cleaned and wiped down; exterior washed and waxed and she's looking pretty as a whistle. Animal looked in; there was a CD player in the dash that he hadn't seen under the tape deck before, an aftermarket Alpine; he looked at the salesperson in question. "I had them put that in for you. It was a little extra that I figured that I'd pop in to say _thank you_ for choosing us to buy your car from."

"Thank you…" Animal said. The man handed over the key…shook Animal's hand and stepped back, his military training coming to the forefront; locking up and giving Animal a salute – Evidently Army Sergeant First Class Haines still felt that camaraderie between fighting men even after leaving the service. Animal smiled and gave him a proper salute in return. It was the least he could do for the Vietnam veteran; a sign of respect for a man who had put his life on the line to serve his country and who had made it home; and endured a greeting from _peaceniks_ that no-one who put their life on the line deserved to receive.

"She should purr like a kitten, sir." The salesperson stated as he turned to head back into the sales center to wait for the next customer. Animal nodded and said thank you again; as Meg got in her car and started the engine. Animal grinned at her and raised his thumbs up as he got into the car and started the engine as well…it had a nice growl to it. He gave the salesperson, who was standing at the door, a jaunty salute and put the car into drive. It had a good solid feel to it as he headed down the road back to Meg's apartment. They needed to drop off her car and she'd take a ride in Animal's new car. At least his new car was paid for outright. No loans needing to be taken out at all. That was one of the benefits of having some of his late parents' nest egg for him. The car was smooth on the road and he looked over to check to see if Meg was in front or behind him in terms of vehicle position. She was coming up on his passing lane and over took him to take the lead. She was a good driver but she liked to drive fast; Harm used to jokingly say that for Meg; speed limits were a suggestion, not the rule. Animal knew that the horses under his hood would pretty much leave most of the vehicles other than supercars in the dust. But he wasn't about to play that game; he was going to take a nice leisurely drive up to Bethesda.

**_**Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, MD**_**

After signing in at the gate-guard and showing ID, Animal found the parking space and they headed in to look for the office where his doctor would be. Meg was holding his arm…since she was in civvies and wouldn't normally be recognized as military. This way she was able to be close to him while they were going through the patient intake process. Even though he was considered an out-patient, his TAD while recovering was at the hospital so like the military…he still had to sign in…and make sure that he made the appointments to ensure satisfactory recovery prognosis.

"Commander Nakamura?" The nurse Lieutenant asked looking up from her computer terminal at the reception desk. Animal nodded showing her his Navy ID. "Sir, Commander Whitman will see you in a few minutes." She gestured over at the seats, a small smile on her face, encouraging them to take a load off their feet. "…if you will have a seat."

Commander Whitman was a rather lean moustachioed man; who wore glasses and had an easy-going bedside manner. "Good evening, Commander; Ma'am," he looked over at Meg who was in civvies, and didn't realize that she was also a serving officer, "If you will follow me down this hallway, I can brief you on what we're going to do." He didn't say any more since treatment and other medical procedures were strictly confidential and not to be discussed out in the waiting room. "Dr. Sharpley asked me to check on your wound since he had other rounds to make. Between the two of us, we'll be overseeing your treatment and rehabilitation. Since your wound is still open…we are going to have to delay rehabilitation until the wound heals but I would like to make sure that we at least make a weekly check-up in order to see how the wound is healing up. So, I'll check on the wound right now and take a look…" As they got into the examination room, Dr. Whitman asked Animal to take off his shirt and his t-shirt so that he could change the dressing and check on the healing of the wound. He looked at the wound carefully, "Whoever has been dressing the wound has been doing an excellent job of making sure that the antibiotic gets to the wound and making sure that it is clean; because its starting heal up nicely." He looked over at Meg, "I'm presuming that as his companion, you're the one who does the cleaning and re-dressing of the wound?"

"I am…" Meg replied as she looked over at the wound…it was still raw looking but it was starting to heal. "I'm just glad that the AK-47 round wasn't a fragmentation round…or he wouldn't have an arm left." The round went cleanly through and didn't cause much peripheral damage at the speed that it was going at. And Animal had gotten shot at from 200m.

"That's true…We just need to make sure that we get some x-rays to make sure that the muscle tears from the bullets that went through are also starting to knit properly and not scarring. We don't want your muscles to bind when it comes time to start rehabilitation. You received this wound from combat?"

"Yes, sir." The doctor looked at Animal's wings.

"You get hit by small-arms fire while doing close air support?"

"No, sir, I was just stupid enough to get in the way of two 7.62mm bullets while going into Indian country to get two friends who had been shot down out. Firefight ensued and well, I got hit. But at least we managed to get my friends out."

Dr. Whitman looked impressed. He pulled out a tube of antibiotics and put a large amount on a large sterile dressing and and placed it gently over the wound. Animal winced a bit as the antibiotics stung a small amount. And of course, the back side was just as sensitive. "This will make sure that there isn't anything left over that will take hold…and it will help heal the wound faster. I'll give your…"

"girlfriend…" Meg volunteered.

"girlfriend…three tubes of it in order so that she can use this as antibiotic for when she dresses your wounds…Dressings should be changed every time you take a bath…"

"I need to stop getting in the way of bullets; had two fired at me today…by some jackwagon…" Animal muttered and Meg looked alarmed. "Our friend needs to get into a safer line of work, Meg." He joked. Meg snickered.

Dr. Whitman grinned, "I assume the guy missed you because I don't see any extra bullet-holes."

"Didn't collect anymore, Doc, but the car I had to hide behind did. Have to be lucky that the guy was such a piss-poor aim…"

Dr. Whitman laughed, "At least you have a sense of humor."

"You would think JAG lawyers wouldn't get bullets shot at them; you'd be surprised…"

"Your friend's a JAG?"

"Yes, Girlfriend is too." He looked over fondly at his Meg. Dr. Whitman looked over at Meg who nodded.

"I presume you're not in uniform for personal reasons…" Dr. Whitman grinned.

"Yes…" Meg said, "Allows me to be closer to him…we're not in the same chain of command, but uniform usually means proper decorum since he's a Commander and I'm a Lieutenant JG." She gave him a smile, "Kind of hard to give your boyfriend the proper support during a doctor's appointment when I have to call him _sir._"

Dr. Whitman nodded, giving her a wide grin, "I would say that would probably be hard to be the supportive girlfriend especially when rank structure has to be obeyed. I won't tell…" he gave her another grin. "So, I'd like to send you down for X-rays again today and then you can see me in one week and we'll see how your wound care is progressing and how long this will take to heal."

"Thank you sir…" Animal started slowly putting on his t-shirt and summer whites shirt. He took his cover and accepted the proffered X-ray request form "I'll see you again one week from today…or when the first available appointment is open?"

"You can make it when the first available appointment is open next week if you prefer, Commander." Dr. Whitman replied indicating to Animal that he had a choice in when to make the appointment.

"OK…will do then, Doctor…"

"You two have a good one…" Dr. Whitman said as Meg and Animal exited the doctor's office.

"You too, doc."

Animal looked over at Meg as they walked down the corridor, hand in hand; and aside from the occasional, "sir." Animal said as he passed an O-6 or higher grade, it was a relatively quiet walk to the radiology department. Meg was certainly glad that she decided to come here in civilian garb as she could hold his hand without anyone commenting.

"Ah…yes, you must be Commander Nakamura. I've got your appointment time listed as 1840, sir. Please have a seat; the radiology attendant will be out shortly." The MOA O-3 looked up at him with a smile. After the whole dog and pony show of getting hit with high frequency high-energy, electromagnetic radiation at roughly 3×1019 to 3×1016 Hz, it was time to get re-dressed. Well, now they had a three way cross section of his wounded shoulder to look at and see if there was anything that was hampering the healing of the wound at any rate. Hopefully he wouldn't have to undergo surgery again on his shoulder since it seemed to be healing up properly. Meg followed him back to the dressing room and handed him his underwear pants…t-shirt and uniform shirt with a knowing grin all the while watching him dress himself, She kept his cover until he'd managed to get dressed then handed him the cover so that he could carry it under his arm.

"Guess we should stop by the NEX" Animal said as they walked through the lobby.

"Yes, I think you said you needed a couple more shoulder-boards, a few sets of collar rank devices and several sets of shoulder rank devices for your jackets." Meg informed him. "Weren't you also saying that you needed a spare white cover as well as khaki covers? Also see if they have the mini-medal for your Purple Heart. It'll be good for when you need to have the dinner dress uniform on for the office formal Christmas dinner." She was looking forward to having him by her side.

Animal grinned at her, "I love it, I now have someone who is able to remember everything for me." He teased as Meg gave him a smirk in response. "Love you…"

Meg grinned back at him, "Maybe we should check there and see if there's anything else we missed out on…you might look at getting a rack that fits all your ribbons; get a couple ribbon racks done up because then you won't have to interchange them all the time. Probably gonna be spending about $600.00 on uniform stuff today."

"Yeah, ouch…oh well, have to." Animal grinned at her, "And once we finish up at the NEX; we'd better get something to eat."

When they walked into the NEX it wasn't busy at all so they were able to browse around and Animal finally found the items that he needed. One of his naval officer's ceremonial swords was on the TR; the other was in the storage unit in California. So he didn't need to get that but he needed to make sure that he had another set of service whites asides from the three sets of khakis that he had. He also had the NEX cashier make up three more racks of ribbons so that he could make sure that he had enough so that he didn't have to alternate his racks between uniforms all the time. He was also able to get the covers, the Purple Heart mini-medal; seven pairs of O-5 shoulder boards (two pairs which would go on his sets of choker whites permanently until he achieved his O-6 rank); at least five packs of collar rank devices and three packs of shoulder rank devices - he had two black jackets and one khaki jacket which the shoulder rank devices would be pinned onto. The total came out to just a little over $700.00. Oh well, at least he was set for a while until the rest of his uniforms came back from the West Coast. When they arrived, he'd have five sets of service dress blues; seven sets of khakis and seven white service uniforms. Also, the stuff that was arriving had two sets of dinner dress whites; two sets of dinner dress blues (which weren't used very often); three sets of choker whites and his overcoats; two raincoats; and three winter overcoats. Of course four of the service dress blues (with the exception of the fifth service dress blues that he had had altered when he first got to Yokosuka for the trial and had brought with him from the TR), he was going to have to send into the PX and have them sew proper commanders stripes on them. At least with the dress whites; all he had to have was shoulder-boards and full-size medals.

"I think that's about enough shopping for today…" Animal said as the attendant handed him his newly made ribbon racks, which were wrapped up and placed in the bag. He had about three bags that needed to go into his Camaro. When they had gotten settled back in the car, he grinned, "Now…let's get some food. I'm starved."


	5. Aggravating Meg

_**Author's Note:**_ Re: Skeleton Crew: _There is no way that Diane Schonke could have been an Academy __**Classmate**__ of Harm's and be a Lieutenant JG still. If Harm is now a Lieutenant Commander; she would now either be an above-zone Lieutenant (who is subject to up or out) or she would be a Lieutenant Commander (the same rank as Harm). If she was so much of a foul-up to have been a Lieutenant JG still; she would have been discharged from the Navy long before now._ _The current term is from O-1 to O-2 is 2 years; from O-2 to O-3 is 2 years; then from O-3 to O-4 is 5-6 years so if Harm had graduated from the Naval Academy in 1985…he would have been in the Navy in 1994 for 9 years. Even with his commission frozen for the two years he went to Law School (which evidently wasn't the case); Diane Schonke, having been his classmate in the Academy, would have been a Lieutenant Commander because her commission wouldn't have been frozen. So there is no way that she could have been a Lieutenant JG still_. _Krennick specifically says that Diane was a "class-mate". That specifically means that she was in the same classes as Harm; and that means that she would have been in the same year as Harm if that were to work. Even if she was a plebe and Harm was an upper-classman midshipman; Diane would have been in her first or second year in grade as a Lieutenant O-3; Ensign to Lieutenant. JG is an automatic promotion; you have to have really screwed up in order to be kept in grade and you'd be out-processed __**if you screwed up that badly**__; same with the promotion from Lieutenant JG to Lieutenant; if you're not promoted in 4 years from Ensign (O-1) to Lieutenant (O-3); you fouled up badly and you wouldn't be in the Navy anymore as a result. The US Navy has a policy of Up-or-Out. Subject to the Navy rules; any rank over Lieutenant (O-3) is subject to the number of slots available and whether or not you have been selected for retention by a selection board. 1) You can be selected below-zone (deep-selected) up to 1 year in advance of your slot whereupon you would be frocked to the grade that you are being promoted to until such time as you satisfy time-in-rank of the previous slot (in other words you will be receiving the pay of a Lieutenant while wearing the rank of Lieutenant Commander until such time as you've finished the time in rank requirements; then you will receive your O-4 pay. 2) You can be selected in grade which is at the minimum amount of time in rank served to be eligible for promotion; it takes five years for you to be promoted from O-3 to you get promoted in the fifth year of serving as a Lieutenant then you are promoted "in-grade"; 3) if you are not selected in-zone: you have two-chances (two years past your selection slot – above-zone) to be promoted then you are out-processed as not-selected for retention or you can stay in until retirement in your current rank with no further consideration for promotion. This is called "up or out" and it's to prevent log-jamming in the ranks. So I'm going to chalk up what Commander Krennick said as a __**major factual error**__ and have Diane be a friend of Harm's from the neighborhood he grew up in; a childhood friend of his (six years apart) who he used to hang out with. The only way that she could still be a Lieutenant JG; is that she in-processed the same year that Meg did. That is the only way that this works for the simple fact of two things; promotion structure & the Navy's policy of __**Up or Out**__._

Chapter 4 – _**Aggravating Meg**_

_**Meg's Apartment; Capitol Hillcrest Apartments; Navy Yard District; Washington DC; Saturday 17 September 1994; 0735hrs**_

At least Meg's apartment was facing the opposite side of the morning sunrise; so it didn't get uncomfortably warm in the apartment until afternoon. And also, it allowed the occupants of that bedroom to not stir until their bodies were sufficiently rested as the morning sunlight did not invade the bedroom. Only the brightening sky lightening in color from dark navy to light blue indicated that it was morning. Meg, as per usual, as well as her lover, was tucked under the sheets and a light throw; unclothed; skin against skin contact. It had become a pre-bed ritual of the past two evenings; make love; take a shower; sleep.

This time Meg stirred first, grinning at her sleeping boyfriend then reached under the sheets to coax her boyfriend awake. Animal woke up; his eyes focusing on her then widening; as his brain realizing where her right hand was caressing made the connection between the sensations he was feeling and the actual physical act. "Like that; do you?" Meg smiled at him with mischievous intent. "Good morning…" She purred in his ear…

Oh, it was a good morning indeed, because Meg ended up on her back on the bed with her boyfriend over her, giving her a wicked grin and growling…"oh…yes…good morning indeed…" as he made sure that morning was good for her as well as for him.

"Oh…yes…Tosh…" Meg gasped; her body quivered with the sensations that she was feeling; the high point leaving her wrung out and breathing heavily; her pupils dilated; her eyes gazing up at her boyfriend, who was also panting heavily. The morning was cool, but the both of them were sweating from their morning exertions. "I think we need a shower again…" she purred; as they rolled over on their sides; still joined intimately. Animal leaned in to kiss her and she met his lips eagerly.

_After a satisfyingly intimate shower and a change of dressings on Tosh's shoulder; they clothed themselves; just in time since there was a faint knock on the door audible from beyond the closed door. Meg sighed as she slipped on a pair of slippers to go answer the door. When she answered the door, she was even more thankful that both she and Tosh had gotten dressed as it was a guy at the door; a rather familiar guy as a matter of fact. She sighed as she looked at the guy, in casual dress shirt and jeans, who was standing in front of her apartment door. "Harm? What brings you over?" She gave him a look that basically begged the question: What are you doing here?_

Harm just gave her an enigmatic grin…as he looked her up and down just casually taking in the surrounding area. Evidently he was eyeing the situation he had intruded on. Noting that Meg was impatiently tapping her feet, he realized that he'd better get to telling her what he had come out here to tell her. "Just wanted to update you on Krennick; she's been released…she's managed to recover quite quickly enough that they can monitor her as an outpatient. She's still got a massive bandage around the head but she's on oral antibiotics now and she's capable of walking; albeit slowly." He grinned, looking over at her. "Well, you seem to be rather comfortable here…" He'd been here before…and his eyes widened a bit; looking over at Animal's sea-bag; that contained all his clothes that he'd brought from the carrier; Meg had pulled it from the closet to get the dressings…and then had rooted around in her purse for the antibiotic that the doctor at Bethesda had given her to use on Animal's wounds, "So…you and Animal having a good time being roomies?" he enquired casually, but the question was accompanied by a wide, amused grin that caused Meg to give him a pointed stare.

"Harm, I told you that was a _need-to-know_…and you, partner, don't need to know…"

Harm noticed that his partner's skin seemed flushed and she looked rather _content_ and his eyebrows made yet another skyward trip towards his hairline. "oh…" he said flashing her a grin. "So…" his grin grew wider, "Can I come in…" Meg gave him a skeptical look, "He decent…I meant he's clothed for company, right?" His grin was wicked and laced with innuendo.

"Harm!" She warned him; "You can come in but NOT a word…" she thought of Harm as a good friend and co-worker, but right now he was irritating the hell out of her.

Animal had grabbed his last clean t-shirt from his bag earlier and had put it on, so he was dressed in shorts; a t-shirt and his sandals. "Hey, Harm…" he called out as he emerged from the bedroom. "How you doing? So what brings you over?"

Harm gave him a grin…and looked him up and down and restrained himself from giving Meg a wide grin; he didn't want to get brained with the nearest frying pan; as his mind went places that he would have sworn he would have to scour out with a Brillo pad. "I'm doing good…" Harm didn't elaborate much beyond that. And he didn't ask what Meg and Animal had been doing; he wanted to spare himself the graphic details. His mind provided him that mental picture already. He was going to have to douse his mind with bleach. "Well, at least we didn't gain any bullet holes from Hemlock; don't think you needed any more to go along with the two you already have. Krennick's out of hospital; she's on out-patient status. It'll probably take a month for her to get back into uniform. She's got a hard head. And at least the bullets missed her brain-stem." He explained why he had come over – essentially to let them know the good news.

"Good to see that she's not going to suffer too much from that injury…I've seen injuries that have ended up landing the victim in a wheelchair." Animal remembered a graphic one where a steam line burst and sent a bolt, propelled by the high-pressure steam like a bullet right through an enlisted; severing his spinal column and the guy ended up in a wheelchair…after recovering from the third degree burns from the superheated steam. Those steam lines under pressure were also like water-jet cutters – they'd cut things in half. Luckily those things didn't happen often. But they did happen and maintenance was then liable for not having managed to replace that fitting prior to its failure. The guy was extremely lucky his internal organs didn't get cooked. "She was lucky…those bullets didn't do more damage or split her spine in two."

Harm nodded as he realized the possibilities of those injuries and marveled at Krennick's luck, "Well, she should be back on duty…middle of next month. It'll probably take that long for her wounds to seal up and well, she's dogged and determined." Meg thought _her being stuck in recuperation and unable to __**prowl**_ would probably drive Krennick bat-shit crazy.

"Well; that's good." Animal nodded; "So…Harm, what brings you by other than the news about Krennick?"

Meg muttered under her breath; just loud enough for Animal and by extension Harm, to hear, "_Curiosity…_" Harm winced as Animal gave him a smirk shaking his head "I presume he remembers what happened to the cat…" Meg muttered darkly as she gave Harm a glare as Harm looked as though he was about to sit down on the couch and make himself at home.

Harm deciding that the safer course of action was to change the subject said, "So…what do you two plan to do today; outside of the…" he paused giving Animal a grin.

"_Harm!" Meg growled ominously, the piqued look in her eyes; letting Harm know that he was treading on a very precarious platform._

"I'm gonna have to run by the Laundromat…to toss the stuff that I've already worn into the washer. Running out of clothes…" Animal explained tossing a look over at the bag that he'd brought from the TR. "Oh…and probably some clothes-shopping too; with Meg; I didn't really bring much from the TR…to shore; I'm gonna let Meg clothe me…" he grinned looking over at Meg who was still annoyed at Harm, tapping her feet; arms crossed; as she looked over affixing Harm with a glare that spoke of the slender tightrope that he was treading with regards to Meg Austin's patience level which was rapidly diminishing.

It took a herculean effort for Harm to clamp his mouth shut but he was successful; _oh…wait…she doesn't do that for you already when she gets you out of bed…_was probably a comment that would end up getting him killed...by Meg. Considering Meg's mood and the fact that she probably would kill him very readily if he decided to invite himself along on the clothing trip under the pretext that he had to get some clothes himself to replace the ones that were getting rather thread-bare…he grinned, "Well…gotta go…have to get some shopping of my own done…" And as he headed out the door he tossed back over his shoulder, "You two be good now…"

Meg growled as she shut the door on him as quickly as possible. "He is sooo dead a week from next Wednesday…" she muttered under her breath. Animal started to fear for his friend's life. "He's fishing for information about the two of us…probably wants to know if we're doing it…"

"I agree; Meg…" Animal said moving close to her and giving her a tender kiss to mollify her ruffled feathers, "It's something he doesn't need to know…" That got him a tender kiss in return along with her arms wrapping around his shoulders and pulling him in tightly to her as Meg took pleasure from their contact.

"Well…we'd better get to the Laundromat and get to the clothing store." She said and looked in the fridge, "I think we'd better also do some grocery shopping…and maybe we can make some Texas Chili tonight to tide us over for the week." She looked in the pot drawer; the large stewpot that she had was of decent size to make certain that the chili that they made lasted for at least three days. The Chinese food was gone…with two mouths in the house; it hadn't lasted long at all.

"Sounds like a good plan; I think your car has the bigger trunk space; so if we're planning on doing some grocery shopping it might be better to take your car…" Animal reasoned.

Meg nodded and they headed out. Finding space at the Laundromat was relatively easy. And considering Animal only had a few items of clothing to wash; it meant that it took maybe an hour to an hour and a half to get it done. Surprisingly the Laundromat was open quite early on Saturday allowing the customers to get in; get their laundry done and still have a day to spend with their family. After they were done, Animal and Meg left the Laundromat and headed over to the shopping mall. It was around 0940 that they pulled into the shopping center. There were lots of clothing stores to look at and the selection was confusing; at least for Animal so he just wandered along, pulled into one clothing store after another by Meg. And told to wear this; put that on…see if that fits…and so on. He felt like a walking doll that was having clothes put on or taken off as was needed by Meg, but it made her happy to outfit him out in clothes that she thought would look good on him. And spending time with Meg was what made Animal happy. And about three hours later and a petrified bank account later; really it wasn't that bad, he hadn't even made a dent in the amount of money that he'd gotten from his late parents as a nest egg. He walked out with at least four bags full of clothes that Meg had selected for him that looked really nice. She had good taste in clothes; clothes for formal occasions; clothes for regular wear around the house, clothes for casual dates; a couple ties for formal occasions where a military uniform was not required and a few non-white dress shirts to go along with those ties and matching dress pants.

Meg had a satisfied smile on her face as she looked over at Animal who looked happy to have clothes that fit nicely and didn't look rumpled on him. "The clothing trip wasn't that bad, was it?"

"It was quite enjoyable…and an interesting time spent," he said as he tucked the bags in the trunk where they couldn't be seen…and leaned over to give Meg a kiss on the lips which she returned eagerly. "…and I enjoy spending time with you…" He looked back at the mall, "I think we need to go get some groceries…so that we can make sure that the fridge is stocked.

"After all…we need to get ingredients for that Texas Chili…" grinned Meg as they both headed arm in arm for the grocery store; they both came to a rapid halt about midway to the store; looking at each other.

"Costco!" they both said at the same time looking at each other with identical grins. They could get a lot more for the money over at Costco and they both headed for the car. Meg got into the driver's seat; Animal into the passenger seat and they pulled out of the parking space; and headed for their local Costco and Meg, having been stationed in DC for the past year already had a Costco membership so it was easy for them to get in and browse the aisles looking for the items that they needed.

"Coffee…" Meg stated; holding up a larger than usual Folgers Mountain Roast coffee canister: the big red, plastic can with the well known black lid covering a vacuum seal to keep the coffee grounds fresh. "Need this to wake up in the morning." She announced. A large tin of diced tomatoes for the Texas Chili; she already had seasonings at home. Three cans each of beans of several types; a restaurant tin of corn; a large restaurant tin of tomato sauce; and a tin of beef soup base. Luckily her stew pot at home was extremely large; it was large enough for quite a few helpings of chili; at least enough for three days. Then they proceeded to get things to stock up the rest of the fridge; several loaves of bread that would go in the freezer. Two large plats of sausages; a large flat of eggs; two large plats of ground beef, one of which would go in the Texas Chili, the other could be scramble fried at some point. A large bag of meatballs, A large box of spaghetti; there was a three for one sale on spaghetti sauce; of various flavors. Bacon…had to have bacon which was three large frozen packages. They had a decent selection of some vegetables that could be cut up for use.

Animal had a hankering for ice-cream so they bought a large tub of ice cream; black cherry. Animal was surprised – it was unusual to find that large of one; usually the flavored ones were only in the small brick packages. A couple of luxury items later like oatmeal raisin cookies; butter croissants and a couple of large chocolate bars. Animal was still young enough to enjoy chocolate bars; his taste buds hadn't lost the desire for sweets yet; as older folks did.

Meg decided to also get some cheesecake; it was her one weakness in terms of desserts and Animal's too; as his eyes lit up in anticipation of the delicious mouthwatering delicacy. There was a huge Black Forest Cake as well…but Meg passed on that. She thought to herself, _I'll be working that off for two weeks on the treadmill_. The gym at their apartment wasn't all that great. Just one universal weight machine, one stationary bike and a treadmill; and most of the time, they were being used. She grinned as she went past the appliances, stopped and pointed out a rice cooker. "Think we need one of those?" she asked. Animal nodded, so into the cart went a boxed rice-cooker. And Animal went over and somehow managed to lug on his right unhurt shoulder an extremely large bag of rice; Kokuho Rose. Meg's eyes went as big as pie-plates. "Wow…that much?" She'd never bought that much rice in her entire life.

"It'll help the chili stretch…We Asians practically eat everything with rice. Heck we even make our desserts with rice; manju cakes are made with rice-flour and azuki beans. Absolutely delicious." He grinned, "Southwestern chili with Asian rice…sounds like a great combination."

Meg grinned. "Hey…if it'll help make the chili last a week…great…" They went through the food aisles again, to make sure that they hadn't forgotten anything. She said to Animal, "I think I've got an idea for the other plat of ground beef. Tacos…soft; I prefer the soft taco shells; I figure we can get a large bag of soft shells." She nudged him affectionately. "I think I have an idea… You know what, hon, we need to find us an Asian food store and make sure that we stock up on that too since my other half eats a lot of Asian food?"

Animal nodded, "I tried eating the hard shells, they just remind me of unflavored Doritos; I prefer the soft shell tacos too and I like your idea of the trip to the Asian food store…" he grinned at Meg, "but I think we should get this stuff home and put it up first."

"Yup…especially the ice cream…" Meg grinned, "Melted doesn't taste good."

"…or warm either…"

They went to the counter. Meg asked if it was possible to add Animal to her Costco membership. "He's my significant other." She explained. They told her that it was; if he was residing with her. That was good enough for them. Animal anted up the money for the entirety of their grocery purchase; after all he had agreed to that several nights before when he'd moved in with Meg; and his word was good. Lugging the stuff out with the cart proved to be quite a fun adventure. The cart tended to want to roll in a certain direction and it took Animal hauling on the cart to turn it in the direction that it needed to go in. It didn't help that the parking lot was on a bit of a slope and well…the cart had a mind of its own. But after a lot of grunting and hauling on the handle to position the cart in the right direction, they managed to get it to Meg's vehicle. Then it was a matter of restraining said cart with his body in order to keep it from rolling away on them and impacting another car thereby raising Meg's insurance. But finally they managed to get her vehicle all loaded with all the stuff that was supposed to go in the top freezer in an accessible position so they could be taken up to the apartment first. Then it was back on the road back to the apartment so that they could put their purchases away.

Just as Animal and Meg got their groceries up into the apartment, her cell phone rang, "Austin!" she barked, a little out of breath and Animal could practically see her exasperation level rising as she found out who had just called. "Harm? What is it now? Oh, you just got done shopping? Well, good for you...Tosh and I just got back in and we need to put some perishables in the fridge…" Animal was already getting started on putting up the stuff. "Yeah, he's doing that right now. Anything other than that; that you're calling about? You just wanted to hear what your partner was doing, uh-huh?" Animal restrained a fit of laughter as he saw Meg roll her eyes in frustration. "Harm…I have a tub of ice cream that needs to go in the freezer…and I don't like melted ice cream…understand?" Meg looked up at the ceiling, "Yes…Black Cherry ice cream…yes _my _and_ Tosh's_ favorite…and if it melts, you're in a big deal of trouble. Mister!" Animal had already put the ice cream in the freezer but Harm didn't need to know that; the cheesecake had gone in there as well. Animal thought he heard faintly Harm's question of "_Whatcha makin' for dinner?_" Was Harm being purposefully irritating? The cell phone was fortunate that Meg restrained herself admirably from hurling it out the window. "South…Western…Style… Chili!" Meg enunciated each word through gritted teeth. Her partner was going to be annoying her for the entire week-end? It started to make her long for the weekdays of her leave when he'd be at work.

Meg winced as Harm said, "Oh yum…" Animal thought Harm remarkably held back from inviting himself over for dinner; considering that was Meg's and Animal's meal portions for the entire week. Luckily it had meat in it; if it was vegetarian chili; it would be gone after Harm got through with it.

"…and it's chock-full of hamburger…" Meg told Harm with no small sense of satisfaction, "A _meat-eater's extravaganza_…" Nope, Harm, as a vegetarian, definitely would not be inviting himself over to partake in the meal.

Animal mouthed over at Meg, "I think we need to find Harm a girlfriend…" as he put up the last of the perishables; one plat of ground beef in the freezer, the other in the fridge to keep cold until they cracked it open to make the chili, later on in the afternoon. Meg nodded back at him as she covered the phone's mouth-piece holes…

"Yes, Harm…I need to get busy with getting the stuff into the fridge. Yes, why thank you…I'll see you on Wednesday two weeks from now…" With an emphasis on the last five words: _Wednesday two weeks from now…_ "Yes, Harm, unless it's an emergency; I will be unreachable until next…next WEDNESDAY…" When she signed off on the phone…and put it back in her purse, she went "AARRGGHHHH! I swear, he's like a two year old fishing for information…every two seconds… Whatchu doing? Whatchu makin'…"

"I think you restrained yourself admirably, sweetheart…" Animal grinned at her, "…from telling him to go play in traffic."

"Oh, believe me, I was sooo tempted." Meg muttered darkly, "I see you put up everything…" she looked through the cupboards to see all the stuff put up. "OK…I'm going to go look through the Yellow Pages to see if there's an Asian food store that has a good selection of Japanese and Chinese foods and other items. I think we should stock up on that stuff."

After a few minutes, she looked up and said, "I think I found a comprehensive Asian food store, "Yamakura Japanese food store…It's got a good selection of stuff…and there's a Golden Lantern Chinese food store right beside it…so I think it might be a good place to find stuff if we want to get Asian foods in one go."

"It's worth trying out…" Animal grinned at her. "Shall we; now that we've managed to get everything put away…I'll set up the rice cooker when we get back."

"Sounds like a plan…" Meg said to him as she got up out of the chair and they headed back out again to get some more grocery shopping done.

The Japanese food store and the Chinese food store were located in a strip-mall and yes, they were side-by-side. Animal decided to pick up some furikake which could be sprinkled on rice; a jar of red ginger and some Japanese sweets…that Meg's mouth watered at too. Manju cakes; and a package of Japanese curry which went good with rice; and a soy sauce dispenser along with a tin of Kikkoman Soy Sauce. At the Chinese food store; Animal picked up some oyster sauce, bok choy, sui choy; Chinese sausages and several plats of barbecued pork and barbecued chicken – Chinese style. And he also picked up a wok with its resultant cover…that was designed to go on an electric stove element. Meg smiled as it was another piece of cookware that was added to the stuff that she had…and she thought _its going to get a lot of use._

When they got back to the apartment, it was a matter of getting the food into the fridge…and all the rice cooker needed to have done was set the cord in the slot where the cord went on the rice cooker and…set it on the counter. And Meg set about to starting to work on the Southwestern Style Chili and it wasn't long before the apartment suite smelled nicely with ground beef on the frying pan. Meg thought to herself _well, this is quite the change, cooking for me and my boyfriend._ Just two and a half weeks ago; they'd never even met _and now we're quite domestic_. She stirred the ground beef as it sizzled in the frying pan. She'd have to cook the stuff in batches then dump it into the stew pot. She liked her chili meaty but she didn't particularly care for it to be spicy hot; just enough to have a slight bite; a mild chili; she figured that Animal would probably appreciate not having his mouth turn into a three-alarm fire. She also started on the base for the chili…and had it on low as she added ingredients to the chili.

Animal was looking over at the scenery out the window. The sun was just starting to reach the forty-five degree angle to sundown point as it was mid-afternoon around 1700hrs. It certainly made it a little warmer than usual, so Meg asked Animal to turn on the fan, which he did. The stuff that was coming also had his NATOPS manuals for the F-14 so he'd be able to study those and keep the information fresh in his head so that while he was rehabbing he'd be able to make sure that he remembered procedures and ingrained them into his head. Frankly his intent was to get back into that cockpit, only now he had someone who he cared about and who cared deeply about him that he wanted to make sure that he didn't risk his life unnecessarily. Certainly orders were orders and if you had to go up and fight in a huge air-battle in which your life was at serious risk, you had to follow orders, but to risk it unnecessarily by making an mistake during normal flight operations which led to your digging a trench with your aircraft and buying you a eight foot by three foot plot in Arlington because you hadn't kept current on your NATOPS…that was a stupid way to kill yourself. And like they say, "You don't get an award for killing yourself stupidly…" wait…there was the Darwin Award for that.

Animal was hoping that he could make it to a bookstore too…to see if he could grab a few books to read. Animal tended to love aviation books and anything that he could get his hands on about flying. So his shelves were pretty much littered with aviation books; that was probably another reason why Meg and he had to move into someplace bigger. And of course anything on his adversaries; the North Korean People's Liberation Air Force, the Russian Air Force, the Chinese People's Liberation Air Force, the Vietnamese Air Force; and any of the Middle Eastern Air Forces. Frankly any air force that could potentially go up against the United States, Animal kept tabs on in terms of books about the makeup of their command structure; their strengths, their weaknesses; then of course there were the confidential and classified reports that only he and other military aviators were privy to. _Know Your Enemy_. That way you had the tactical advantage.

By the time he'd finished cogitating, Meg had set the chili into simmer and it was simmering its way to being done. So Animal got busy on washing the rice and making sure that it was clean of talc before setting it into the rice cooker; plugging it into the wall outlet and hitting the tab on the control to make the rice cooker start steaming the rice.

Further to books; Animal also loved reading about the service that he was in; the United States Navy; naval aviation and the other branches within the Navy structure; mainly because he wanted to see how others experienced the naval service…and how others viewed their experiences in naval aviation. And frankly reading those experiences would better help in his leadership and if he was lucky enough to be promoted far enough where he could make leadership decisions on a greater scale, then he would take those experiences and utilize them to institute policy. But that was far down the road. Right now, he was a naval aviator and his focus was on healing enough to get back into the cockpit.

Meg came over to join him on the couch while he was thinking those thoughts. And they spent time cuddling on the couch enjoying each other's closeness. "That was a good run of shopping today, wasn't it?" Meg said.

"It was." Animal looked at her.

"The chili should be ready in about an hour…"

The two decided to watch TV for a while; while they were waiting on the chili to cook. There really wasn't much on other than a few insipid reality TV shows; the rest were on the news; talking about the latest casualties in the Bosnian War and what happened locally. Of the shooting at the Embassy Row Hotel; there was nothing. Evidently the White House, the CIA and Naval Intelligence had clamped down tightly on the information under the veil of national security. That was a relief to both Meg and Animal since neither Meg nor Animal wanted to be front-page news; nor did Harm at any rate. Everything was going to be silenced regarding Shepherd's attempted assassination. So they sat and watched the news for the time that it took for the chili to cook. Meg got up and got a glass of soda…and brought Animal one too which he thanked her for with a kiss on the cheek.

When the chili was done, the rice cooker had also clicked off and went to warm. Animal pulled out the cord on the rice-cooker mainly because the rice if kept on warm too long, ended up going crusty around the edges…and Animal hated crunchy rice. So Animal dished up some rice in two bowls and they poured the chili over top. And Meg agreed, it was heavenly with rice.

_**Harm's Townhouse, 224B 8**__**th**__** Street, Washington DC; 1846hrs**_

Harm grinned to himself. Meg certainly was making herself domestic. Evidently he'd irritated her enough today. He knew that he'd ticked her off; since when he'd asked what she was making for dinner, she sounded as though she was clearly enunciating her answer through gritted teeth. Yeah, he had a crush on his partner, but well, his RAG mentor had captured her heart and Harm knew it. He thought to himself, _sometimes life really sucks_…but he realized that he'd made a mistake and not told her how he felt about her, so he was left with _what ifs, maybes _and_ could have beens_. He looked over at the letter that he'd gotten from Diane and wondered if he could ever have a life with her. She was pretty; she was dedicated to the Navy and he and Diane had always been close; the best of friends.

Harm realized that even though he cared for Meg a lot; Meg had her own ideas of what an ideal life-partner would be and he realized that he was too closed in; the ghost of his missing father; and too many other things that needed to be resolved before even attempting to get into a relationship. He had to be honest with himself. With all those skeletons in the closet; he wasn't ready for a relationship and he knew it. And Harm sighed as he looked up at the ceiling of his apartment; that Meg knew that she'd found her life-partner and that they would make a life together as a couple from hereon in and that he was just a friend to Meg. And well, that hurt in a ways, because there would always be a part of his heart set aside for Meg; but Animal had Meg's entirety of her heart. Well, he thought _there's other fish in the sea…_and maybe it was time for him to start throwing the hook in the ocean to see if he could capture one. Meg was feisty and strong and she didn't put up with shoveled down and being condescended to. Animal would never do those things; and he'd always treated others on an equal level in terms of intelligence; and treated them kindly and with respect until they showed him otherwise.

And even though it hurt him on a deep emotional level; Harm had to admit that Animal was a good life-partner for Meg. And she'd made a good choice.

He looked again at the letter from Diane reading it and hoping that there was something in it that gave him an inkling of what she felt about him. There was a little bit of mischief about Diane Schonke that had always intrigued him. She'd flirted with him and teased him about things; but there wasn't meanness in the teasing. It was the good-natured ribbing that she gave to friends that she considered close. And there always seemed to be that bit of a spark in their friendship that hinted of something more; and he wanted to explore that. Since she was deployed as a crypto officer on board the USS Seahawk; attached to the US Sixth Fleet; there really wasn't a lot of time to explore their relationship. When he'd still been with the fleet and served onboard a carrier in the Med; She had joined the Navy. She wasn't much older than Meg when you considered the fact that she and Meg were of the same rank. And Meg and Diane had joined the Navy roughly about the same time. Diane and her family were the Rabb's family friends; thus Diane and Harm, though six years apart were considered play-mates and friends. Considering the fact that Diane had always asked about the Navy when Harm had gone back to his parents' place and while recovering after the ramp strike she'd always had an interest in the Navy. Seeing her best friend join the Navy and serve; she'd always had the dream to serve as well. He was certain that Diane had managed to finagle a sponsorship through their State Congressman to attend the Naval Academy; since her parents weren't in the service. She'd always write him during her time as a midshipman; the letters going out to him on the carrier in the middle of their deployment as Harm and Animal served nearly four years together on the Howlers with a brief stint together in 1990 in VF-41 Black Aces joining them on a cruise that ended up with them in combat over Japan during a trade war that had gone hot; Animal going on three cruises with Harm after he left from VF-101 Grim Reapers and the RAG instructor slot and their flight-leader-wingman partnership was dissolved after Harm had the ramp strike and was formally de-winged by the FNAEB in June '92 and he was forced into a different designator.

The Howlers had newly stood up with the D Tomcat and had a dearth of experienced aviators and Animal had trained aviators on all three types so he was considered the first pick for experience on the Howlers. On the '91 Cruise Animal was teamed with a nugget JG RIO by the name of Lieutenant JG Jim "Scooter" Willis and together they would go on to become one of the premiere MiG Killers of the Gulf War shooting down one MiG 29 Fulcrum; and one Su-27 Flanker; Animal would then out-process from VF-241 and go back to VF-41 in May '92 taking Scooter with him; becoming a crew there joining the Black Aces mid-cruise.

_Diane would go on to crypto school and would graduate in March of '92 and then be assigned to the Seahawk where she would serve as a crypto officer in her current position; being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant JG. And being currently on deployment in the Med; while the Seahawk was conducting air operations; it appeared that Lieutenant JG Diane Schonke was up to her ears in work; that much Harm could deduce from her correspondence. He finally figured that he would contact Diane on the night the Seahawk docked in port at Norfolk coming back from her deployment and have dinner with her; he wanted her take on the future of their relationship and whether she could see that going anywhere from hereon in. After all he'd just lost the other option to his RAG mentor and former squadron-mate. Was it a rebound romance? No, he figured, Diane and he had been close friends for most of their lives and maybe, this was the logical next step in their relationship; to go from being close friends to lovers. Maybe he should give serious thought to making that next step with Diane. _


	6. Why Didn't You Tell Me?

Author's Note: _Note that my timeline will make a few significant departures from the canon story-line. And the promotion timeline of Meg Austin will follow __**The Naval Officer's Guide **__(__**(9**__**th**__** Edition) **__which is the copy that I own; 9__th__ edition printed in 1989 – I'm not buying another one…the damned thing cost me $29.99CDN back in 1990 (when I found it) – I have no idea why it was sitting on a Canadian bookstore shelf, but I snagged it) guidelines for time in rank and promotion. Considering a few things in Season 1: where Meg admitted that she was a baby at the time of the moon-landing (1969); I figured that she was born in 1969; early in the year and followed that timeline. If she was born one year earlier; she would have already been a Lieutenant (O-3) (one year in time served in rank) by the events of the Pilot episode and Shadow._

Chapter 5 – "_**Why Didn't You Tell Me?**_"

_**Meg's Apartment; Capitol Hillcrest Apartments; Navy Yard District; Washington DC; 27 September 1994; 0745hrs**_

The two weeks had flown by; filled with fun, frolic and lots of amorous encounters in the morning; in the shower and before bed. Animal had picked up his stuff from the shipping place and had figured out where he could store it at a DC storage facility the majority of the things that wouldn't fit the apartment. He picked from his uniforms what exactly he could use and brought them home with him…and it went into their closet to hang beside Meg's uniforms. Meg did get a kick out of seeing his uniforms hanging beside hers. Animal did have to drop off his dress blues at Bethesda Naval Medical Center NEX to have them change out the braid from Lieutenant Commander to Commander and they were to be picked up when he next went to get his weekly check-up on how his wound was healing and it seemed to be closing up pretty well.

They had another X-ray to see what the inside of the wound area looked like and it appeared as though it was getting better. But there was still a ways to go before the doctor would give the all-clear. Judging from what it looked like it would be December before he was cleared to start rehabilitation and depending on how his body reacted to the rehabilitation regimen, the schedule could be lengthened or shortened as necessary; Animal preferring the latter option.

He missed the feel of stick and throttle in his hands and the power of the TF-30s pushing at his back to propel him at over Mach 1.2 through the air. He missed being able to pull on the stick and have the F-14 go from Angels 10 to Angels 30 in a heartbeat. He missed the thrill of getting up in the morning to pull on his bag, grab his flight-helmet from the locker; do the grunt'n yank to get on his g-suit and climb aboard the F-14; getting ready to get cat-shot off the deck and go out and do some bumping. There was no thrill more exciting than to challenge another combat aviator and test each other's limits; no more satisfying feeling than bringing your nose on the guy, knowing that he knew he had majorly fouled up and kill him with a TACTS shot right up the left or right burner can. To show your squadron-mates that you had what it took to be number one in their arena of air combat. And as Joe "Hoser" Satrapa had once said, "No greater kill than a guns kill…" to track that pipper across the tail end of a MiG and put those twenty-mike-mike right into the engine.

When he was with the Howlers, he'd had the controls of a beast powered by a pair of GE-F110-GE400s and they put out a lot more power, 27,600 pounds of thrust than the under-powered TF-30s (20,900 pounds); The F-14D (new-build airframes) and the F-14A+ or later called the F-14B (modified frame and re-engined) were engined with the General Electric F110-GE400s. VF-241 Howlers had the F-14D and the VF-41 were still flying the Pratt and Whitney TF-30 engined F-14As which meant that you had to make certain that your idiosyncracies in the F-14D didn't manifest themselves while flying the F-14A, because it could put you into a lot of trouble. The F-14A had a tendency to compressor stall, which ended up if you were in a low energy situation and one of your engines compressor stalled; it would put you into a nasty yaw to port or starboard depending on which engine flamed out; a _nose-slice_ which would if unchecked end up in a fast unrecoverable flat spin; out of which the only solution was to eject. This spin was known as the _RIO-killer_; because the airflow around the aircraft in the spin was akin to a zero pressure zone in a tornado and the canopy would hover above the crew compartment of the F-14. With the RIO's seat always firing first in an ejection sequence: that meant that the RIO would slam headfirst into the hovering canopy; the speed of the impact breaking their neck and killing them. Of course that high-speed impact knocked the canopy out of the way so that the aviator could eject without being killed as well; however that was a costly way of insuring the front-seater's survival. And sometimes even the impact of the RIO to the canopy did not suffice to move the canopy out of the way…and then both crew-members impacted the canopy…killing both RIO and aviator.

He remembered what it was like to go against that Su-27 during the Gulf War; that knife-fight-in-a-phone booth: the turning battle to see who was going to get out of there alive. The Iraqi ace had managed to get the drop on him at the outset of the fight, and put several holes in the twin tails of the Tomcat. But Animal had compensated for the lack of maneuverability from those hits and had pulled seven Gs on the F-14, pushing the envelope of the Delta Tomcat's structural g-tolerance to break the lock. The F-14 managed to stay together and he was able to turn the tables in a satisfying turn of events; forcing the engagement into a turning battle; watching his airspeed so that he didn't lose energy. _Lose energy; lose the fight_, because if you couldn't yank your nose up into the vertical, you were dead. When he'd pulled that hard turn to port, cranking the stick over, and pitching up into the vertical, the Iraqi ace couldn't keep his nose on the Tomcat, even though the Flanker was quite maneuverable; either the opponent wasn't paying attention or he had his nose in the weapons display setting up with an Apex to put right through Animal's burner can. Animal had actually pitched up into the sun in order to keep the missiles from tracking the heat from his cans. The sun would confuse the Apex's IR tracker and blind its pilot visually so that he couldn't see where the Tomcat was from the glare the sun was putting on his visor; so the ace chose to point his nose down and extend. Animal then stomped left rudder and came over the top cranking his F-14 into a snap-roll and getting a momentary pipper on the Su-27, had triggered his Vulcan; seeing hits along the top of the Su-27; the twenty millimeter shells slamming first into the fuselage ripping pieces from the Flanker and then tracking right through up the fuselage into his canopy. The Flanker had done a slow roll and impacted the wadi; there was no ejection, no chute; just a satisfying blossom of orange red flame and black smoke against the sand. He'd downed the Iraqi's ace and that bastard wouldn't be getting any more kills against the Navy or Air Force jets; the ace had managed to down an Air Force F-16 prior to this battle which would be his last. Animal had had a prior engagement with this ace where he'd managed to track a nine-lima into the guy's right burner can of his MiG 29, but the ace had managed to eject. And evidently he'd started flying a Su-27 within the ten weeks between their two meetings. Animal was sure that the guy had trained on both types prior to the war so that he could switch between types easily. Middle Eastern air forces were like that. Train their guys on multiple types so you could switch them between squadrons rapidly as the need presented itself. Poorer nations had to use their pilots like that in order to gain a tactical edge.

Frankly, Animal figured that in a diplomatic setting, he and the guy could have found common ground in the fact that they both flew, but circumstances had led to the fact that they were on opposing sides in a war where only one side could be the victor and the fact was that each was trying to kill the other. Animal intended to be the guy who came out on top and flew with that intention going into the engagement.

Meg knew that her boyfriend missed flying his jets and she understood that one of his loves was flying; and that flying his high-performance jet fighters was a part of him just like breathing. It was the same with Harm and the fact that every time they had an assignment on-board a carrier, he looked as though he'd come home. Harm wore his wings with pride; advertising proudly the fact that he'd served as a naval aviator before circumstances had pulled him out of the cockpit. He and Animal were alike in that fact. They both lived and breathed flying. They had served together in the Howlers and the fact that both were in the air covering the other as flight-leader and wingman; meant that they knew each other on a combat level that was second to none. And that was why Harm had managed to come through the Gulf War as a MiG Killer; shooting down an Iraqi MiG-27 Flogger. Everything that Animal had gone over with him clicked like clockwork.

Animal had taught him everything that he'd known as a naval aviator who had served with a squadron that had first blooded the Tomcat by taking out two Libyan Su-22s; one of which had gotten the brilliant idea to launch an Atoll off the port rail…at an F-14 flown by Commander Hank Kleeman who promptly shot the stupid bastard down; and the other was gotten by Lieutenant Larry Musczynski. Animal, having come into the squadron a year later, had seen the gun-camera film, had talked to the guys who walked him through the engagement and told him what they did and why and he'd passed along that information to the guys who he taught at RAG. Though a proud Howler, Animal had a soft-spot for the squadron that he'd served with on his nugget cruise and that would be the squadron that he went back to once his two cruises with the Howlers were over. The squadron whose patch he wore proudly; the black edged red slashed white playing card with the Ace of Spades bearing the number 41. Nuggets had to earn the right to wear that patch and he'd done so. It was the squadron with which he was when Meg had met Animal on that MoH investigation.

Harm had told her that you always respect the two guys that taught you to fly; the first being Lieutenant Gary Hochhausen with who Harm had learned the baby-steps taking his first uncertain foray into the realm of naval aviation with the T-2C Buckeye at Pensacola. The second was Lieutenant Toshio Nakamura, who taught him how to fly and fight effectively in the F-14 Tomcat at Oceana at Reserve Air Group training for newly minted naval aviators just newly winged and still in their baby-down flight-feathers blinking owlishly at the predatory new bird that they were assigned to fly.

What Meg and Animal had bought in groceries was for the two weeks that they had spent together which had promptly disappeared into their stomachs and digestive tracts and it was time to replenish the stocks. So it was back out to Costco to get some more stuff that they could use. Meg always chose to bring her own lunch from home. It was cheaper that way and on a Lieutenant Junior Grade's pay, it was quite tight to end up going to eat at the officer's galley. The enlisted had their meals paid for, the officers if they chose to eat in the galley ended up having to cough up. So Meg always made some extra food and made sure that it was always ready for her to take to work. The only times that she ever chose to eat in the galley was during out-of-town investigations and well that was just for convenience's sake. She wouldn't have the time to cook on investigation. And Animal loved that about Meg, her frugal nature, fed into his own and that way they both knew that their intentions were to have a tidy little nest-egg.

Meg grinned at her boyfriend; it was wonderful to be able to have someone to share life with, especially someone who loved her as much as Tosh did. She would miss him while she was at work, but she knew that in the evenings when she came home, he would be there waiting for her. Of course it probably made her partner at work, jealous as heck, but the simple fact was that Harm would just have to come to grips with it; that her life-partner was not meant to be him but the senior officer that she had met on investigation, the one who was hanging out on her couch right now with a look of intense concentration at the list that he was making of foods that needed to be restocked. And it helped that despite their difference in rank – he was three ranks ahead of her; he was boyish looking still at the age of thirty-six; that was the thing with Asians, they didn't look their age at all. Most people looking at the both of them would think that they were roughly about two, maybe three years apart; no-one would think that there was eleven years difference between the two of them with Tosh being the older of the two. And he still had that boyish zeal about him about most things in relation to flying; except when it came to combat flying – then he was dead-serious; and considering his achievements in that arena, he was deadly.

"Mmmhmmm?" Animal looked up at his girlfriend with a grin, "I think I've got a list…but I'm sure there's things that you'd want to add to that."

Meg took a brief glance at the list, it was pretty thorough; aside from a few toiletries that they needed to stock up on, it was pretty complete. She smiled at him, "It looks good…of course there may be a few other things, but I wouldn't guess on that until we're walking down the store aisle." Her mind flashed to another aisle…that she would like to be walking down, but she didn't want to scare him off. There would be time enough to consider that particular _aisle_ when their relationship had matured to the stage where they were prepared to make that commitment. "So…should we get going and get some groceries done?"

"Yup…sounds good." Animal checked his watch; it was now around 0815hrs.

Meg was surprised; her mental reverie had killed off half an hour of time? Well, they would have to get going and get stuff done. Costco opened at about 0900hrs, so and it was a good forty-five minutes to an hour in travel time, so they would get there roughly at about the time the doors opened. After locking up the apartment, they headed down to the parking garage downstairs; walking to and getting in Meg's car (it was the larger vehicle of the two and they would be able to pack more groceries into the bigger back trunk). Animal buckled in as did Meg and she started the engine while Animal sat back and relaxed. Checking her rear-view, she backed out into the driving lane and nosed her way slowly over to the parking garage entrance; when the security gate had come up, she nosed out of the parking garage entrance, up the ramp then hit the turn-signal to enter the street.

The drive over to the Costco wasn't very congested and they managed to reach the place about five minutes after the doors opened. Then it was back inside the store to go get the food and other necessities that they had on their list. "Think we should get another ice-cream? Tosh?" Meg smirked at Animal, "I'm sure that in this heat we need to have something cooling us down; rather than driving up the water-bill…" She got a lascivious smirk in return and nudged him affectionately with her shoulder. "If I was at work now, I'd be in khakis and thankfully in air-con…" she said. She was dressed in a mini-jean-skirt and blue silk shirt and had on sneakers. It was cooler attire than the jeans and white cotton shirt which would get really warm in the heat of midday. Plus it also had the added effect of making Tosh's eyes focus on her assets; which probably wasn't such a good thing because he nearly collided with the rack of watermelons on display in the aisle that they were on which would have caused a catastrophic avalanche, averted only by diverting his attentions off her six narrowly missing the display rack after he yanked the cart back onto course.

Yup, Meg was causing him all sorts of distraction and she knew it too; judging from the sway of her hips every time she walked in front of him. Oh, things were going to get very heated at home when they got back from grocery shopping. He thanked the gods above that there was a shopping cart that he could walk behind or he would have shown everybody just how interested he was in the young blonde woman who was with him and that probably would not have been an appropriate thing in a store. And she was intending on drawing out that torture…looking over her shoulder with a _come hither _seductive glance_…_saying, "I need to go look through the cooler to see if there's any frozen vegetables that we need to get." Yeah…her leaning over and checking out the frozen peas and diced carrots, knowing just how good of a view of her six that she was giving Animal, was making him feel very happy indeed. The grocery shopping was finished about an hour and a half later, chock full; paid for by Animal and then carted out to the waiting car; where it was quickly loaded up. The cart was brought back to the shopping cart corral and they then started on the return trip back to the apartment. When they got back…they both looked at each other with passionate looks… "We need to get these things put up…" Meg managed to get out; her voice husky with desire.

And there was a rapid hustling of getting all the groceries put up and arranged nicely so that they could be easily grabbed during food prep. When Meg and Animal were done, Meg looked at him with a low-lidded gaze and parted lips…and grabbed him by the waist, pulling him into the bedroom.

_**Meg's Apartment, Capitol Hillcrest Apartments; Navy Yard District; Washington DC; 27 September 1994, 1300hrs**_

Meg's eyes were half closed, sweat beaded on her upper lip…as Animal leaned over her looking down at her, his bare chest glistening with sweat. "That was something…" she managed to get out between trying to catch her breath… "I feel wrung out…" He grinned at her…breathing heavily as well. Still intimately joined; they continued their exercise in amorous contentment; and she wrapped her legs around him, locking him tight. "Yes…Tosh…just like that…" The mountain was climbed…and then the precipitous fall off the edge…as he shuddered. Meg felt warmth inside her as she gripped him around his back and pulled him in close in a tight embrace, as Animal collapsed, utterly spent and completed. "Mmmm…Tosh…" she whispered in his ear as they both recovered from their climactic moment of passion. When she could speak clearly, she told him, "I think we need a shower. I'm all sweaty…and you are too. There goes the water-bill…but this is worth it…" she smirked at him, her hair disheveled and limp with sweat.

She looked beautiful, Animal thought; at any point of the day or night, including her after-passion look which was arousing.

They somehow untangled themselves from the rumpled sheets which were now damp with sweat and proceed to head for the bathroom.

When the shower was started and tested for temperature; she stepped in and then let him step in. She raised an eyebrow in question and gave him a low-lidded look…laden with meaning. He pulled her in close and kissed her passionately. Their bodies pressed up against one another. Animal stood under the shower, "We need a rain shower… the one that's directly overhead." Meg looked at him giving him a look of agreement at that assessment, "But I guess we'll just have to improvise."

She turned around with her back to him, as Animal pulled her in close; under the water spray of the shower; she reached around with her hand…and Animal's eyes widened...as he realized what she wanted; so as soon as he was able to; with her help, he complied. She breathed deeply as she accommodated him…and then pushed back against him. She bent over and handed him the bottle…and gave him a grin; still joined…pressing back against him. Animal grinned back at her. Her hair was soaked…the shower jets sending rivulets of water down her back. So he lathered her hair…and ran his hands through it.

She uttered a soft moan as she felt his hands kneading her scalp making sure that the shampoo cleaned every follicle of the hair on her head of all the sweat that had accumulated. She enjoyed every minute of this shampoo…ever since they'd first done this the night that he'd arrived at her place. Those intimate moments with him, where she felt his closeness, she loved. And some of those shampoo sessions were just hot and steamy…she'd gotten thoroughly aroused enough that she was pretty much prepared to jump his bones the minute that they got out of the shower. Hell, sometimes she didn't even bother waiting to finish the shower; they'd have their intimacy right in the shower with the water pounding through their hair as they made love. This was a side of Meg that her partner at JAG would never, ever see; in fact, she was one hundred percent certain that he would never see this side of her at all; as her personal relationship's future was with the man who was with her right now in the shower; where they were so intimately joined as one, her body pressed back against his torso and feeling his hands running through her hair.

"Oh…Tosh…I could have you do this all afternoon…" she sighed; the water pounding at her back felt so good. There were other things that felt good too and she gave him a lascivious smirk as she gave him a whole new set of sensations by adjusting her hips as Animal groaned in pleasure.

Animal pulled her back into the water spray so that her hair could get rinsed off; then applied the conditioner; again running his hands through her hair as he made sure that the conditioner was well-applied. He was definitely gaining first hand knowledge of how to shampoo and condition a woman's hair.

When they were done (more than just the showering); it was time to dry off and get lunch started; with their desire for each other's bodies, the fact that they'd missed lunch had apparently gone by the wayside – all that exercise was now certainly making them both ravenous. After changing the dressing on Tosh's shoulder, they both got dressed and headed out to the living room. At least their damp hair made the living room feel a little cooler as the stiflingly hot September early-afternoon air was certainly still on the hot end of the temperature scale; of course when night fell, the temperature dropped rapidly with the fall approaching. Washington DC was at about the same latitude as Eureka, California on the other end of the continent though of course the jet-stream and air currents would affect the climate of each location differently. They still weren't too certain as to what they wanted to eat for lunch, but they rummaged through the fridge and figured out something that wasn't too laborious to make that would do in order to ease the hunger pangs. The meal that they cobbled together was a cold cut black forest ham and roast beef sandwich apiece with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes and mayonnaise dressing. It wasn't fancy, but it did the trick as far as taking care of their hunger.

Meg had a few cases that she had to go through in prep for going back to work the next day so she sat on the couch with the files in hand while Animal looked through his NATOPS manuals and made sure that all the information was fresh in his mind; even though he didn't know when he was going to be heading back to the cockpit, he still wanted to make sure that his procedures were down pat. After all, he was no longer an impatient cone-head with his hair on fire looking to make a name for himself; he'd already done that on Hill 175 and in the skies over Iraq; his name now was talked about in fighter jock circles as someone who'd been there; done that. Now he had something and someone to live for and to make sure that he preserved himself for bigger and better things down the road; that someone being the woman who was sitting on the couch intently focused on her legal files. His mind wandered along paths as he gazed through the emergency bail-out procedures for the F-14A Tomcat.

As much as he loved his mount; his beloved F-14A Tomcat that he flew in the Black Aces; not even her compared to Meg Austin and he would pull the loops if he had to in order to live to return to his Meg; no hesitation at all. A FNAEB was nothing compared to losing the opportunity to have a future with her. Not that he expected to with the thorough walk-around that he did pre-flight for which he was known for; but unforeseen situations did crop up and well, if it came down to it; there was no way that he'd dig a furrow along with the Tomcat he was flying.

_**JAG Headquarters, Washington DC, 1425hrs**_

Rear Admiral Albert Jethro Chegwidden walked through his office anteroom; turning to the legalman standing by the desk.

"Get me Lieutenant JG Austin's jacket…" he said, indicating that he wanted LT JG Austin's personnel file.

"Aye, aye, sir."

"O-3 convening boards are being held in March of next year and the results are posted in June. I want to make sure that she's in consideration for advancement." RADM Chegwidden grinned; good officers deserved to be retained and Lieutenant Austin was a damned good officer as evidenced by her abilities in helping Harm defend Captain Tom Boone and in defending the Marine who ended up accused of espionage in Iraq when the Iraqi Republican Guard had twisted the borders to their benefit in taking him prisoner; And the fact that his considerations for selectees would be given greater consideration if they were sent in early, rather than last-minute would prompt the selection board to note the file as _highly considered by their commanding officer_.

It wasn't more than ten minutes before Lieutenant Austin's file was on Chegwidden's desk. The admiral made some notes in the file and made reference that he wanted a copy made of the jacket so that he could send it and three others in his command, for the O-3 boards, considered for retention. The ranks from O-1 to O-3 were relatively automatic, however certain situations could make it so that the officer wasn't retained; the ranks that were higher than O-3 were subject to space available as after O-4 the limited number of command and executive officer positions made it imperative to higher command to make sure that the spaces weren't log-jammed by a surfeit of officers with no positions and those who were less than capable officers were subjected to _**up or out**_. And if the commanding officer didn't make the recommendations, their officers weren't even considered for recommendation to be retained so it was imperative that the commanding officer not delay his recommendations; to get them in; in a timely manner and Chegwidden made certain to put LT JG Austin's file right at the very top with a post-it saying, "Highly Recommended".

Lieutenant JG Austin's fitreps were highly glowing and they were consistent all the way through all the commands that she was serving in prior to her arriving at JAG and RADM Chegwidden's latest quarterly fitrep for Lieutenant JG Austin was no different; which would go a long way to making sure that as of the end of June, when the list of those selected for O-3 were posted; Austin's name would be on that list and she'd be able to pin on those double bars of a full Lieutenant. He grinned again; Commander Nakamura would have to be called into the JAG office in order to make sure that he was there for his girlfriend's promotion ceremony within the office where she would take the commissioning oath for her new rank and position. Chegwidden thought wryly that Rabb's face was going to be a sight as Lieutenant JG Austin had given him the kiss for his promotion to O-4; but he wasn't going to be able to return the favor. Poor Rabb. Maybe he'd be happy enough to help pin on the lieutenant's bars on the opposite collar; but no, since Meg was a staff officer, she didn't have the second rank bars but a staff identification pin on the "opposite collar", well, it appeared as though poor Rabb was out of luck. Ah, the problems caused by love-triangles.

_**Harm's Office, JAG Headquarters, Washington DC, 1535 hrs**_

Harm knew that his partner was returning to work the next day. He'd refrained from bothering her for the past week so that she wouldn't rip his head off when she returned to work. He sighed as he thought about the young lieutenant JG. She was very vivacious and attractive and he'd had quite the crush on his partner; they'd flirted quite often, but never went beyond that. And now he'd lost that chance; since his RAG mentor had captured Meg's heart. Love sucked as far as Harm was concerned. And he knew that this wasn't some week-end whim and fancy; he'd seen the look in Meg's eyes as she gazed at Animal and that wasn't the look of someone infatuated – there was genuine desire and love there. He looked at the file on the desk with some frustration as his mind seemed to want to take a long walk somewhere other than where it was supposed to be which was concentrating on the Helms case; which was a serious case that he was asked to prosecute.

Lance Corporal Roderick Helms; United States Marine Corps, was in contravention of Article 86 (10 U.S.C. 886) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for being Absent without Leave. The text of the statute read: _Any member of the armed forces who, without authority—(1) fails to go to his appointed place of duty at the time prescribed;__shall be punished as a court-martial may direct._ The elements being: (1) _Failure to go to appointed place of duty_. _(a) That a certain authority appointed a certain time and place of duty for the accused; (b) That the accused knew of that time and place; and (c) That the accused, without authority, failed to go to the appointed place of duty at the time prescribed_. Of course Helm's defence was that he was living off-base; that the traffic was heavy that date and he had arrived at the place about fifteen minutes after the prescribed time. He would have let the CO know but he had run out of airtime and wasn't able to take extra time to refill his phone. Of course his CO was a ball-buster; so Helms was placed on charges. Harm was prosecuting attorney; however he felt that Helms should be let off with non-judicial punishment; however the CO was not likely to agree to that, so unfortunately for Helms, he was going to be subject to proceedings. Harm would, however, recommend highly that LCPL Helms be considered for extenuating circumstances under Subsection (c) (6) (6) _Inability to return_:_The status of absence without leave is not changed by an inability to return through sickness, lack of transportation facilities, or other disabilities. __**But the fact that all or part of a period of unauthorized absence was in a sense enforced or involuntary is a factor in extenuation and should be given due weight when considering the initial disposition of the offense**__. When, however, a person on authorized leave, without fault, is unable to return at the expiration thereof, that person has not committed the offense of absence without leave_. The maximum punishment under Article 86 (d) (1) _Failing to go to, or going from the appointed place of duty_: _Confinement for 1 month and forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 1 month_. However, Harm was going to, with approval from RADM Chegwidden recommend the punishment be lowered to restriction to BOQ for one week and forfeiture of one-third pay for one month before being allowed to go back to his off-base accommodations. Harm didn't feel that the fact that CO wanted him charged to the fullest extent of the UCMJ warranted the full punishment of 1 month confinement; and two thirds loss of pay for one month; especially when there was extenuating circumstances and the fact that Helms had in fact reported into the position that he was required to be at; albeit late with the full intention of serving his post.

Forcing his mind back on the case, he wrote in his recommendations and got set to go talk to RADM Chegwidden regarding that case and his recommendations to get the JAG's approval.

Knocking on his commanding officer's door, he waited for Chegwidden's roar of "Enter!" Harm entered the office; file in hand; squaring off in front of the CO's desk, he snapped to attention. "Sir, Need to get permission to proceed with sentencing recommendations…" Harm then passed the file over to Chegwidden who gave the file a good long look before…

…he replied, "Not going for maximum due to extenuating, Commander?"

"That's correct, sir."

"Very well, proceed...talk with the defence and see if they'll accept the offer. I think it's fair considering the circumstances." Chegwidden nodded, looking up at Harm with a measured expression. "The CO's going a little far with his prosecution of the Lance Corporal." was his taciturn judgement of the Colonel in question.

Harm noticed with barely a reaction on his face the file-folder; a personnel jacket, for Lieutenant JG Austin on Chegwidden's desk…and the post-it on the face of it which read, from what he could read upside-down, _Highly Recommended_. His mind churned on that for a long moment; then he said, "Thank you, sir…" with regards to the recommendation to talk to the defence attorney about getting the Helms case resolved. The unit was in pre-preparations to deploy to the Middle East and they needed all hands.

When Harm got back to his office, he sat down for a long moment…_highly recommended_. Was Chegwidden recommend-ing Meg for a transfer mainly because Chegwidden wanted Harm to feel more comfortable rather than pining after Meg all day? If not that, what could it be? That would prey on his mind for the rest of the day as he tried to focus on the rest of the cases on his docket which proved to be a fruitless attempt as he couldn't get the thought out of his head. _Animal's with the Pacific Fleet_. The Black Aces had transferred from Atlantic Fleet to Pacific a few years earlier. _Is there a possibility that Meg was transferring to RLSO SW_ _**in order to be closer to Animal**_? He felt a pang of loneliness go through him of the fact that Meg would be gone from the office in short order; they'd really only been friends for the better part of an year since she came on board, soon after Kate left to become an aide to Rear Admiral Brovo. From their initial meeting in the investigation of Dirk Grover, the tech-rep who went bonkers and decided to set a programmable torpedo after a cruise ship; they'd grown in terms of relationship to a close one, of friends apparently, over the course of the cases that they had worked together and with Meg being recommended for transfer out of the office, he felt that he was losing someone that he was close to.

But Harm knew that he had to concentrate on his work. The cases that he was working on wouldn't stand for a good session of woolgathering and he needed to make sure that he put his full effort into making sure that he gave the clients a good chance at winning; at least on the ones that he was defence attorney for. The prosecution cases that he had were essentially going after the jugular of the defendant and sealing a win, which in Harm's former career as a naval aviator, ended up being much the way that he would go after an enemy in the air – fangs out. So he forced his mind back on his work as best as he was able to under the circumstances. He'd have to let the fallout from Meg's decision to transfer fall where it landed.

_**Meg's Apartment, Capitol Hillcrest Apartments; Navy Yard District; Washington DC; 28 September 1994, 0500hrs**_

Workday mornings for Meg were a blurring rush of getting things together and getting out the door. At least she had made her lunch the night previous. "Have you got your lunch, hon?" Animal asked her…as he got up out of his seat where he was eating breakfast. It wasn't so much the drive to the Washington Navy Yard as it was the stress of negotiating the Washington DC traffic congestion for Meg;

"Yes…" Meg replied as she gave him a passionate kiss, as she grabbed her khaki cover (they'd be switching over to blues on the first week of October), her lunch and her legal briefcase as she headed out the door. "You're off to Bethesda for a routine checkup today?" she tossed over her shoulder as she went through the open door; getting a brief affirmative from Animal.

"You have a good day at work…"

"I'll try." She leaned back in the door, smiling winsomely at Animal and gave him a longing look, "…but I'm going to miss you all day…you know…" she purred, "You spoiled me for the past two weeks…and I'm not sure if I want to go back to work.

"Yeah, but wouldn't you be AWOL if you did?" Animal grinned at her.

"Yeah…drats…guess I have to make an appearance."

_**JAG Headquarters, Washington DC, 0600 hrs**_

Meg signed in to the office, "Good morning; ma'am," the legalman greeted her. "Lieutenant Commander Rabb wanted to see you this morning…"

"OK…thank you, Legalman, I'll see what he wants." Meg smirked internally; she was sure that Harm wanted a rundown of her two weeks at home and she wasn't about to give him any inkling of what had been going on between Animal and her.

After putting her briefcase and cover in her office, she headed over to Harm's office to see just exactly what she wanted and knocking on his door, she was told to enter. Harm was standing by his window looking out at the scene outside; the hustle and bustle of the busy Navy Yard. "Sir? You said you wanted to see me this morning?" she asked.

Harm sighed; still continuing to look out the window, "So…were you ever going to tell me that you requested a transfer?" he asked bitterly.

Meg was taken aback, "Sir, I don't know what you're talking about." A grilling about Animal and her relationship was what she was expecting from Harm; not this.

"I saw your personnel jacket on Chegwidden's desk. Were you planning on transferring to Pacific Fleet and not telling me?" The pain and loneliness in Harm's voice was telling.

Meg, by this time, was confused as hell; "Harm, I never asked for a transfer…why would I…and even if I was planning to transfer to the Pacific Fleet; why would I do it right now?"

"Animal?" Harm said sourly; "Isn't he with the Pacific Fleet? Might make a very good reason…"

"He's convalescing from the gunshot wounds and getting treatment at Bethesda…so why would I transfer to PacFleet when he's here?" Harm turned from the window as Meg, exasperated by now, said, "Look Harm, I never asked for transfer, let's get that straight right now…and I wouldn't at this point…I just transferred in to HQ less than an year ago and I'd be shooting myself in the foot if I asked for transfer right now."

"So then why was your jacket on Chegwidden's desk?"

"I don't know…fitreps?" Meg ventured a guess.

"Fitreps were filed six weeks ago…" Harm replied still not believing it. His heart didn't want to believe it that Meg was telling him the truth that she _didn't_ ask for a transfer; it was still too sore.

"…then I have no idea…"

"All I saw was a sticky note on it saying _Highly Recommended_." Harm said sourly looking over at Meg with a skeptical look on his face, "…so, Meg, what was I supposed to think. All yesterday I was thinking…_but we're supposed to be partners_." His voice barely held back a note of anger and hurt.

"Harm, this isn't just the folder, is it?" Meg asked Harm; insightfully realizing that there was far more to his reaction than just the simple sighting of her personnel jacket and that, in itself, was treading dangerous ground; should their commanding officer or a superior come into the office right at this very moment. "And I don't think we need to be delving into this topic on the Navy's time…" she warned him, "You understand, right?"

Harm knew exactly what she meant. If he kept this up; they could both be liable under Article 92 and Article 134 stipulating Fraternization and Conduct Prejudicial to Good Order. And that further exploration of this subject would end up causing Harm and Meg to be charged under those Punitive Articles under the UCMJ. He didn't want that to happen, so he dropped the subject; regardless of how much he wanted to continue the conversation; perhaps at lunch or maybe dinner together, but it would mean broaching the subject in front of Animal who probably wouldn't be pleased in the slightest at having to hear about this. "Well…" Harm said, reluctantly, "I guess we have to get back to work."

"Might be a good idea, sir."


	7. Getting Back To Work

_**Author's Note**_: _The author is barely holding in his bile as he writes that Beltway Burgers section_._ The Author is a long-time Vancouver Canucks fan and having to write about a New York Rangers fan (even if it is his created OC) makes him want to projectile vomit. Damned fucking Rangers puke!_ _As a Vancouver fan; I loathe Mark Messier's donning of the Vancouver Canucks jersey in '97, usurping the captaincy from Trevor Linden; his apparent disrespect of demanding number 11 from Wayne Maki (who passed away from cancer – and whose number is unofficially retired(I don't care if it's been his number that he's played under for many years – as a player; when you don a Canucks jersey __**you're a Vancouver Canuck**__ and __**you respect the team's traditions**__)) and his "I'm just playing here for the money – no effort" play while in Canucks uniform …so let's face it; writing about him too was making me want to blow chunks. And that explains my antipathy towards Marky Messy. May the impact of a thousand slap-shotted pucks land upon his bald head. Go Canucks Go! Unlike the OC's wish, the author's fervent wish is to see a Stanley Cup come to Vancouver within HIS lifetime though as he rounds fifty, he's starting to think that is probably NOT going to happen anytime soon. What the hell was that? Benning? Giving up a conditional first round draft pick for a third line player in trade?!_

Chapter 7 – _**Getting Back to Work**_

_**JAG Headquarters, Washington DC; September 28, 1994; 1000hrs**_

The worst part about coming back from leave, Meg found, was that it was hard to concentrate on anything; especially with the heavenly two week leave that she'd had with her now-boyfriend; she smiled to herself as her mind touched on the subject of Tosh. She sighed, trying to focus on the file in her office; but the words that Harm had said about her file being on the admiral's desk weighed heavily on her concentration and made concentration on her work nearly impossible. After all she hadn't put in for transfer; and she had no idea as to why her file would be on Admiral Chegwidden's desk. But the reasons why were for the admiral to know and for her to find out later when the ramifications hit. So she doubled-down on her work and tried to fight through the threats to the devoted application to her work. After all, being unable to concentrate was no excuse for not doing a good job on any case that she was assigned. With the overhanging threat of an Article 92 d) (3) _Dereliction in the performance of duties_ (A) _Through neglect or culpable inefficiency_ if she failed to render a good performance on her cases; she didn't particularly want to lose two thirds of her pay; and end up cooling her heels in the brig for three months. Not only did she have her investigations with Harm that she had to pay attention to; she also had minor cases that she was either defense or prosecution counsel for that she had to deal with; minor things like custody matters in the case of servicemen splitting up with their spouses – rights to access, etc. The big stuff from the UCMJ she wouldn't have to deal with until she received her second bar.

The case that she was working on was a custody dispute between a Marine sergeant and his civilian ex-spouse who wanted to leave the state and while he was stationed at Marine Corps Camp Lejeune, his spouse wanted to move back to the West Coast taking the children along with her thus violating his rights to access to his children. However the Marine Corps didn't care about the fact that he could not see his children. He was assigned to Lejeune and there was no way that he was going to be able to transfer at least for another year to a base much closer to his spouse so that he could continue to see his children and it was too far for his children who were three and eight to travel alone to meet him clear across the other side of the continent. The spouse was adamant that she wanted to leave the state since the job opportunities now that she was single were not there in North Carolina. Meg was frustrated mainly because of the fact that neither spouse wanted to budge from their position; the sergeant wanted access to his children; the spouse wanted to leave the state and neither were willing to concede to the other.

And now that she had a significant other; Meg was seeing this case even more closely as she considered her own situation if Tosh and she decided to take such a significant step as walking down the aisle and further, having children. What would her own situation be like since Tosh was working clear across the continent with his squadron since they were based out of NAS Lemoore, California? What would she do to keep their relationship stable so that this situation, that she was counsel for, didn't happen to her own personal relationship? She knew it was hasty to think of that since she hadn't even broached the topic to Tosh or even the idea of marriage; besides they were still in the rose-colored glasses stage of their new relationship; the stage where they were too busy feeling out their physical and emotional ties to each other before they really truly committed to an everlasting relationship involving rings and a walk down the aisle. She smiled as she thought _the only thing that I know right now is that Tosh and I love exploring each other's bodies_ and they had certainly explored each other's bodies thoroughly after two weeks of that heavenly leave_. _It was at that point that she heard a knock on the door.

"Can you concentrate?" Harm's voice penetrated her thought processes.

"What?" She looked up in confusion at her investigative partner.

"…because I can't worth a damn…" Harm muttered caustically. He came into the office, shut the door and leaned up against the wall giving her a pitiful puppy expression.

"Are you even trying?" Meg asked pointedly as she indicated her open file. "I'm trying to get through a logical argument regarding a custody case so that the person in question…" keeping the case vague. "…won't lose access to their kids due to a violation of the _right to access_ orders…" Harm mumbled something unintelligible in reply to that query. "well…maybe if you went to the galley and got yourself a cup of coffee…it might help you concentrate on your work?"

"You wanna join me?" were the next words that she could understand out of Harm's mouth.

"Were you planning on grilling me?" Meg raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her case file that she had maybe managed to get about two sentences scrawled with regards to getting any further with the case than she had prior to going on leave.

"No…" Harm grumbled, "Just don't like going down to the galley by myself; thought I'd ask if I could have you as company." Meg smiled; Harm really wasn't an extrovert. He had a small circle of people who he counted as friends, including her now-boyfriend and he didn't really care for large crowds. Neither did Animal and frankly, neither did she. And that was probably why they all got along so well. Each one of them knew the other's tendency to want to go sit alone to recharge or to stick in a nice comfortable small group of people that they all knew well. Harm tended to get uncomfortable in large crowds; and so did Meg.

"Alright, Harm, but after this, I have to get back to this file and make sure that I make at least some headway before secure; otherwise the admiral will have my head on a platter." She gave him a glare to let him know that he was impinging on her time.

"Yeah…OK…" Harm grunted as she locked up her office and then they both headed towards the galley. Meg looked at her wrist-watch and nodded. "time?" Harm asked.

"Yeah, Tosh is supposed to be heading into Bethesda. He's got an appointment at 1100hrs to check on how the healing is going with the bullet-wounds…see if they're closing up the way they should be and to make sure that there is no risk of infection." Harm gazed at her and nodded.

"I take it you've been applying the antibiotic that the doctor gave you and him to use on his wounds?" Harm asked assuming that Meg was the one doing the dressing of Animal's wounds for him.

"Yeah…they still look raw though…it might take a while…"

"That's probably another reason why I don't like the idea of getting shot…" Harm muttered. "It was a close one with Hemlock. Animal, I think, narrowly avoided getting shot again. He showed me the two bullet holes that went into and the exits in the car that he took cover behind…they came pretty close to his head."

Meg stared at him. "He didn't say that they came that close." She looked alarmed. "All he said was that they hit the car that he was hiding behind…not anything about any exit holes."

"I think his luck is holding out…so far…" Harm muttered.

"By the way he told me to tell you…_Get into a safer job_." Meg passed along her boyfriend's recommendation as Harm snickered.

"Yeah…like he should talk…" Harm grinned at Meg. "…considering he launches himself off decks…and goes Rambo on North Koreans…"

"Didn't you used to launch yourself off decks too?" Meg retorted; her line of sight indicating Harm's naval aviator wings

Harm gave her a wide smile. "Yeah…you got a point there…but I've never felt the desire to go full-on Rambo…"

Meg smirked at him, "So…no desire to earn a blue-button?"

"I'll leave that to your boyfriend…" Harm shot back.

"I think one's enough…" Meg said wryly. "I want him to be here for a long time…" Harm looked over at her with a telling look. He was still not comfortable with the fact that Meg was now no longer available for a relationship and the look he gave her was one that didn't speak of just friendship…but of close ties and wanting something more. But unfortunately, he'd had his opportunity and he didn't take up on it. So now, Meg was no longer single but dating and was unavailable.

By this time, they'd managed to reach the galley and get in line to wait for the MS2 (Mess Management Specialist) to get to them to give them two take-away cups of coffee; Harm took his black; while Meg took hers with two cream; two sugar.

_**Bethesda Naval Medical Center; Bethesda, MD; September 28, 1994; 1045hrs**_

Animal had on khakis…his rack of ribbons neatly arrayed over his left breast pocket; three to a row; four complete rows in total, along with nicely bright polished naval aviator's wings that gleamed in the sunlight of the late September mid-morning going on noon. He'd just parked his Camaro in the visitors parking lot and got out of the car. Wearing his RayBan aviator sunglasses, he put his cover on…he decided to bring his officer's cover with the single row of scrambled eggs on the brim and not the overseas cap. A bit of conceit in that the officer's cover gave a much more professional and squared away look to his khakis than the overseas cap which on his head always tended to flop a little which caused him no end of disgust; even starching the damned thing stiff didn't work – maybe his head was a little too round at the top since the overseas cap tended to flatten out on the top like a triangle that had gotten squashed so he rarely wore it.

He got quite a few smiles from the khaki wearing female officers who looked over at him striding past; his eyes shaded by the RayBans; the gold wings gleaming and he noticed quite a few of them ogling him; must have been his wings. But of course, he had the love of a beautiful female JAG officer so he didn't bother returning their looks. Besides, he had an appointment to make and he only had fifteen minutes to get up to the office.

When he got there, his cover under his arm and his sunglasses neatly squared away hanging by its left earpiece off the left breast pocket; he walked up to the LT who was manning the MOA desk. "Good morning. Commander Nakamura?" she asked.

"Yes, Lieutenant…I believe I have an 1100hrs with Dr. Whitman."

"Yes, sir…you do…I'll let Commander Whitman know that you're here…" The Lieutenant smiled at him as she lifted up her phone. "Sir…Commander Nakamura is here…" cupping the mouthpiece, she said softly, "Sir. Please have a seat, Dr. Whitman will be right out shortly."

"Thank you…" Animal responded and went to take a seat. The bandages were still bulky and his wound was still tender when pressure was applied slightly to it whether it was sitting down and the khakis rode up due to starching the uniform for proper creases or tucking the shirt back properly when getting up out of the seat.

"Well…Commander…good to see you…" Dr. Whitman strode out. Evidently UOD for Bethesda was also khakis today. The Service Blues change-over wouldn't happen until the first of October and Animal noted that in mind as he realized that he was in the nation's capital where uniform regulations and UOD were strictly adhered to. And he made a note to himself to make sure that his service blues were always pressed and ready for wear and that his white covers were also nice and clean. Animal stood and grinned at him "C'mon and we'll head for my office and we can go over the file together as far as your progress is going." He turned and led the way to his office. When they got there, he ushered Animal in and they both sat down. "So your girlfriend is back at work?" he inquired as he shut the door and came over to his own side of the desk and sat down in his chair.

"Yes, today's her first day back…so I'm solo coming up here." Animal said, shrugging his shoulders giving him a wry smile.

"I'm seeing quite a bit of healing and relatively little scarring in the area where the bullets punched through." Dr. Whitman said noting the x-ray that was in Animal's health chart. "We usually see scarring where the muscle gets torn; but you've managed to avoid the tears…they were just straight puncture holes right through the muscle tissue; they were arthroscopically reattached on the Mercy and they appear to be growing together just fine. I don't believe you'll really have any loss of motion…which is a primary concern for wounds like these; as that would have serious ramifications on your ability to return to the cockpit."

"So what is the prognosis, Doc?" Animal asked.

"Well, Commander, it pretty much means that you're on progress to start rehab in the New Year, preferably by the third of January; you should be healed up enough to start light physical training…on that arm to get the strength back. By about late March-early April you should be ready to move onto higher strength training so that you can get back to being able to pull G's without enormous strain on your shoulder musculature."

"So would you say that by June-July I should be able to return to RAG for retraining in type?" Animal asked him and Commander Whitman looked down at the chart.

"If your progress remains the same as what I'm seeing, I think you'd be looking at a late July next year return to flight-status; provided…" he paused ominously, with a cautionary look at Animal "…that there are no setbacks…in the schedule. I'm not going to give you a definite green light yet, but I'd say that if the progress continues the way it's been going; then you could look tentatively at that time-schedule for a return to flight status…" Animal nodded.

"I'll try to restrain my enthusiasm…" Animal said, "Don't want a setback…too early in the game."

"Just take the rehab slow and steady…" Dr. Whitman stated. "You won't get there any faster…by over-doing it…"

"I'll keep that in mind. Doc…"

The rest of the examination involved checking the wound physically and Dr. Whitman looked over the wound… "I see your girlfriend has been applying the antibiotic regularly and making sure that the wound is clean…because the healing looks pretty good…and there aren't any signs of redness which would be a cautionary sign that there is possible infection…so she's done a very good job…I'll do some cleaning, reapply the antibiotic and then redress the wound…" he stated as he went about doing that. "We'll do another consult again in a week's time…just to make sure the progress remains the same…on an upwards movement." When he'd finished reapplying the dressing after the reapplication of the antibiotic ointment, the doctor grinned, "Well, I think that pretty much takes care of that…so I'll see you in another week. Commander. So where to now for you?"

"Off to the NEX to pick up my blues…which should have my rank-stripes replaced with the proper rank by now" Animal grinned. "Yeah…lots more money to spend…" he sighed.

"Well…hopefully it doesn't make too much of an impact on your bank account…" Commander Whitman said cheerfully. "NEX has a habit of raising prices… on a regular basis…"

"Naw, I think I'm good financially…the Navy just needs to make money...hence the relentless price gouging." Animal replied giving his doctor a cheerful grin, "So see you next week, Doctot?"

Doc Whitman nodded a cheery affirmative to the question as he stated, "You have a good one…"

After leaving the doctor's office, he headed downstairs…towards the Navy Exchange outlet in the Bethesda Medical Center. The QM1 who was there looked up, "Good morning, sir…"

"Good morning. Hughes…" Animal grinned at him, "So…are my blues ready?"

"Ready for pick-up, sir…" Excusing himself, QM1 Hughes headed over to the backroom to pick up Animal's tailoring request. "I believe it was four service blues and two mess dress blues?"

"Yes…I believe it was…" Animal grinned at him. Hughes proffered the uniform in a uniform bag, unzipping them to show him the tailored uniforms. The rank rings were nicely arrayed on the mess dress as well as the service dress blues and Animal nodded his satisfaction to the QM1. Hughes also made sure to show him the size to make sure that the sizes were exactly the same as when he'd dropped them off – no substitutions.

"Great…" Animal grinned, "So how much is this going to freak out my debit card?"

"Well, I think you're probably going to be set back about a hundred fifty, sir."

"I figured as much." Animal said proffering his debit card to the QM1 who took it and scanned it through the debit card machine…then offered the pin-pad to the officer to punch in his pin-code. When the transaction went through, Animal passed the pin-pad back to the QM1. "Thanks a bunch, Hughes. I'll probably see you next week. Gotta swing by and pick up a few more O-5 boards on my next pay."

"We'll see you then, sir, you have a good one."

"I will…"

After leaving the hospital doors, he looked around, putting his sunglasses back on. _Gotta go grab a bite to eat somewhere; Wonder where there's a Beltway Burgers._ Animal thought to himself as he headed over to his Camaro.

_**Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pentagon; September 28, 1994; 1200hrs **_

"So, have you seen the latest? Our newest blue-button nominee put in the guy who went in with him in the helo up for the blue button as well. Looks like we gotta send another investigation crew out to the TR to see about interviews. Maybe if we time it right, we can get them both awarded at the same time at the same ceremony." The CNO stated to the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

"Well, I think that was good of the Commander to acknowledge the Marine Corps help." General Wisebrough, USMC stated to Admiral Jay Whitmore; the CNO.

"So you agree with Commander Nakamura on Captain Wild Crow being awarded the Medal of Honor." Admiral Whitmore looked over at the Marine General.

"I was thinking more of the Navy Cross when I read Wild Crow's citation, but if the Commander can make the Medal stick, then I'm fine with it. I'll sign off on it; and I'll sign off on your Navy boy's blue button too. I think it's gonna be a unanimous since he pretty much took the heat off by redirecting the fire on himself by taking the NKs's attentions off our helo. Think the Army and Air Force boys are gonna go for it though?"

"I'm sure they will…they've had enough chance to read the citations and they know what it takes for the blue button; after all; that Air Force F-4 pilot that got shot down and resisted capture; then resisted while a POW in 'Nam was a posthumous award; so even the Air Force knows exactly what it takes to receive the Medal."

"Good, because I don't want the Air Force or the Army to stuff up these awards…" As much as there was rivalry between both the Marines and the Navy; they were still a part of the same Department of the Navy and well, when it came to rivalry between the Air Force; the Army and the Navy – the Marines and Navy would stand side by side.

_**Beltway Burgers; **__**DC**__** Beltway; Washington DC; September 28, 1994; 1300hrs **_

Animal had found out while on cruise that his home favorite Rangers had won the Stanley Cup over the Vancouver Casucks in June. The Casucks attempt at a comeback had fizzled even though Linden was their most effective player. The Rangers with Messier had pretty much shut down the Canucks offence after brutalizing their top players, slewfooting Bure and roughing up a few of the other players like Courtnall and Ronning; the little midget; Messier taking a double-handed axe chop to Linden in Game Six. Animal despised the Canucks; the bunch of dirty floppers. And on top of that…after the loss the Canucks fans practically started flipping cars and starting a riot. Well, that would be another 25 years of futility for the Casucks. The Hockey Gods would not look too kindly on that. With any luck the Casucks and their Canucklehead fans would never win the Stanley Cup in any of their lifetimes.

Animal was a devout hockey fan; happy to be an Original Six team fan and unfortunately due to being shuffled around by the needs of the Navy; wasn't able to attend the Rangers games, but maybe now that he was assigned to the Nation's capital, maybe he should attend a game or two when the Rangers came to town to play the Capitals. Of course Capitals fans wouldn't like the fact that he attended the games in a Rangers jersey, however; tough luck for them. Just because he was in the nation's capital didn't mean that he was going to root for the Capitals. Hockey fandom didn't work that way. You cheered for YOUR team and that was it; cheering for anybody else was anathema. In hockey; hatred of other teams was a definite.

Searching through the Washington Post for news about his beloved Rangers and the deals that were being made; was short shrift in the sports section because the Post generally covered the Capitals; the laughingstock of the NHL; their Cup aspirations were negligible and Animal loathed any team that wasn't wearing his favorite Red, white and blue. He resolved that he needed to stop by the local newsstand and pick up the latest New York Times; at least that would have some Rangers coverage.

So he looked at the Post, ate his fries and his burger; sipped on his shake laughing at the Capitals' attempts to make a competitive hockey team. They would probably have decades to go before they became anything that even remotely had a chance to win the Cup and hopefully the Casucks would never win – let the streak of futility continue. He must have been a sight; khaki-uniform clad naval officer munching on a fry; staring at the Washington Post and laughing malevolently at the sports section.

He finished his lunch, deposited the paper on the _Please Read_ convenience rack; dumped the empty wrappers of his burgers and his fries container, picked up the milkshake that was still half full and headed out to the waiting Camaro and got ready to go find a news-stand so that he could pick up a Times. He found one just about three blocks down the street and pulled in, going in; tossing down the amount needed to pick a copy up…and then went over to his car and sat down in the driver's seat; getting ready to start the engine. He'd read the paper when he got home. It would tide him over until such time as Meg got home.

The drive home was uneventful; pulling into the underground parking garage and then heading upstairs to their one-bedroom suite. He went upstairs, pulled off his khakis and took all the insignia off it…since considering it was hot, he needed to send it into the wash; he pulled on one of his t-shirts and shorts…and some sandals…then he sat back and flipped open the Times to the sports section to see what direction his Rangers were going…and that kept him busy till Meg walked in the door at 1815hrs.

"Hey, sweetheart…" Meg walked over as Animal got up off the couch and enfolded her in his arms. "Mmmmm…I missed you today…"

"I missed you too…Meg…" He leaned in and kissed her receiving a passionate kiss in return.

"You picked up a New York Times?" Meg queried as she saw the paper on the coffee table.

"Yeah…had to for the sports section. All they cover in the Post is the Capitals."

"Ah…" Meg raised an eyebrow, "Ice hockey fan?"

"Yup…and it is _hockey_…it's generally understood to be played on ice…the other forms of hyphenated hockey don't count." he smirked.

"I've never really watched _hockey_ so I don't particularly have a preference for a team." Meg informed him. "But of course, I'm open to learning…My brothers preferred football…Cowboys or Oilers"

"Yeah, Edmonton has a team called the Oilers in hockey…it's the team that Messier won his first Stanley Cup with…" Animal told Meg who nodded. "Messier's now the team captain of the New York Rangers." He smiled with satisfaction "…and they won the Cup this year…and yes, I'm a New York Rangers fan…long before their current Cup Run and win; been a fan since the mid-sixties." Animal grinned, "So…how was work today?"

"Hard to concentrate. Harm thought I was transferring…and he really didn't believe that I wasn't." Meg informed him; shaking her head looking up at the ceiling in frustration. "Evidently the admiral had my file on his desk with a _highly-recommended_ post-it on it and Harm jumped to conclusions…"

"_Highly recommended_ also can refer to recommendations for promotion boards…" Animal informed her. "By the way, aren't you just about at your four year mark?"

"Next year June…" Meg said; a light-bulb going on in her head. Maybe the admiral was sending her name into the O-3 promotion boards. That sounded like the most logical conclusion for her file to be on the admiral's desk. But she would keep that information to herself because it could be that and she really didn't want to jinx it. She was looking forward to pinning on the double bars of a full Lieutenant. It would mean that her hard work was being recognized. And it would mean an upwardly mobile career path provided that she didn't stumble over a knee-knocker in the process. And well, it would lend justification to her choice of career. She'd gone into the Navy because her father and Uncle Ollie both served in the military and she'd had a keen interest in the Navy and the sea.

Meg really wanted the promotion; but it was still almost nine months away before she would see the promotion list come out stating who would be able to put on the twin-bars of a lieutenant and that she could drop the JG part of her rank and then it would be five years after that before she'd be able to pin on gold oak leafs. She just had to be patient; though hearing the possibility that it was regarding her promotion candidacy directly from her boyfriend's mouth was something that **was** certainly plausible considering her hard work over the past year and three months that she'd been a lieutenant junior grade. Her glowing fitreps from the time that she'd pinned on her ensign's bar would go a long way in cementing her status as an officer that was fit for retention.

Meg looked over at Animal, "Yeah…I'm sure that was it…" she stated regarding the file on Chegwidden's desk. It was at about that point that Meg's stomach started growling. "Hmmm…seems like I'm kinda hungry…" she commented, "Ideas on what we should make for dinner?"

Animal shrugged his shoulders. "I'm pure out of ideas."

Meg snapped her fingers, "I got it. _Cantonese Chicken_; we can use some of the ketchup and soy sauce and we bought honey at the Costco the other day. And all we need is lemon juice; I can get that at Safeway."

"Sounds like a good plan…"

"And we can have rice on the side with it…" she suggested indicating the rice cooker .

"OK…" Animal responded; "before we head out to Safeway to grab the lemon juice…how about if I get the rice started, then we can have it ready before the chicken goes in the oven. It can keep warm for the duration that the chicken cooks. It won't start getting crunchy unless you leave it on all night."

"Good…I'll go change into civvies while you deal with the rice." She smirked at him giving him a kiss and then headed for the bedroom; while Animal started on rinsing the rice. That was one of the things about rice; you had to rinse off the stuff that they powdered the rice with to keep the grains from sticking together; it wasn't healthy to ingest that stuff. You washed the rice till the water ran clear; then stuck it in the steamer. The sauce and chicken would have to marinate in the fridge for two hours before cooking it in the oven for one hour at three hundred seventy five Fahrenheit (thirty minutes covered; thirty minutes uncovered) but at least they would have a delicious meal after that.

The trip to; the actual purchase of the lemon juice and from Safeway only took about 45 minutes so they were back around 1930hrs, though of course it would be a late dinner. Meg, looking at the time, decided that they had better order pizza and let the chicken marinate over night in the fridge covered by foil; then they could have it the next evening. All Animal had to do was throw it in the oven and let it cook for an hour.

The pizza was good enough for couple of nights…dinner even if it was skipped for two nights in favor of Cantonese Chicken.

_**JAG Headquarters; Washington DC, September 29, 1994; 0600hrs**_

Meg pulled into the underground parking lot of the JAG HQ at the Washington Navy Yard. Grabbing her purse and her cover from the vehicle she shut the door and locked it. Heading upstairs via the elevator she signed in at the Marine sentry's position. "Good Morning Staff Sergeant."

"Good morning, ma'am." The Marine looked over her JAG Office pass checking to see that both face and ID matched up. "You're good to go, ma'am."

"Thank you, Staff Sergeant." She stated as she headed for the elevators leading up to the offices at the JAG headquarters.

The elevators were only a brief moment's wait as they were quick to arrive on her current floor and she was able to get on one. When the elevator let her off at her floor, she stepped out and headed over to her office; unlocking the door and heading in to put her briefcase down. She then figured that she'd better head down to the galley and get herself a cup of coffee before morning briefing. She'd managed to get a settlement done on the custody case and that was cleared off her slate. But there was another mountain of cases that she needed to get some work done on and if she didn't get some coffee in her she was going to impact her forehead on her desk and the resultant concussion probably wouldn't do wonders for her state of mind at this point. Mornings were rough on Meg mainly due to the fact that everything was a rush up until she reached the office. Traffic was nuts this morning on the Beltway; two motor vehicle accidents had slowed traffic down to a standstill. And she was lucky enough to manage to slide into the off-ramp bound for the Navy Yard. She had a gut hunch that she should get out early this morning and managed to do so which was the only reason why the accidents on the Beltway did not make her late.

Animal had mentioned this morning that he was considering heading up to the National Air and Space Museum just for something to do. Considering that he was convalescing still and not in a heavy duty rehabilitation program yet; he had some free time to do whatever. So he got to spend all day in civvies whereas poor Meg had to head into the office in khaki uniform; properly attired and uncomfortably starched. _Yesterday was midweek; still one more workday after today to go…until the weekend_…she thought to herself as she got in queue for the coffee.

"Two cream; two sugar…" she informed the MS2 who served her.

"Two cream; two sugars; aye ma'am…coming right up…" And he handed her a steaming take-away cup of java with two packets of sugar and two small plastic sealed cups of cream.

"Thank you, MS2." Meg replied as she headed over to the free counter to put in two creams and two sugar and stir the mix with a stir-stick; the empty sugar wrappers and cream containers went into the garbage and once she was done stirring; the stir-stick followed them into the garbage container. She headed over to the cashier to hand over her ninety-five cents for the coffee. It was really the only thing that she bought on a regular basis from the galley. Besides if one didn't kick one-self in the ass in the morning with a jolt of caffeine; one would find themselves nodding off at the most inopportune time; like in the middle of briefing. That was the one thing about having a boyfriend that was a problem. Spending most of the evening exploring each other's intimate leanings ended up with them dropping off to sleep at about just a little after midnight, exhausted and satiated; which made for a very short sleep before having to roust one-self out of bed a scant five hours later. At least getting to the office was only really about an hour; an hour and a half if one wasn't like Meg who figured that speed limits were a suggestion and when she was late, she tended to get a little heavy on the accelerator pedal. Luckily she hadn't pushed her luck too much this morning, since a Virginia State Patrol stop would have pretty much ruined her chances of getting in before being counted AWOL; managing to still get in on time even with the crawling traffic on the Beltway.

It was about half an hour later that Harm managed to shuffle himself past her office door muttering something caustic about Beltway traffic and Washington DC idiots who couldn't manage to drive to save their lives. Meg grinned as she thought, _Shoulda gotten out earlier this morning…_lucky for her she had listened to her hunches. That saved her quite a bit.

A legalman knocked on her door, "Ma'am; ten minutes till morning meeting…"

"Thank you for the heads-up, Legalman Two."

"You're welcome, Ma'am." The Legalman grinned at her and made his exit.

She gathered up her files and got ready to head down to the boardroom. Because of the number of lawyers in the Navy Yard office, the boardroom was configured like a classroom with everyone facing the JAG who was at the head of the classroom like a teacher. Each one of the lawyers would have five minutes to brief the JAG on the disposition of their caseload and if their caseload was starting to become light, they would be the first to receive new cases based on their abilities. The higher ranking officers were the ones who routinely got the heavier cases due to their experience level although O-3s did have their share of them.

Being an O-2; she picked a seat at the back of the room; the O-5s and O-4s got the seats closer to the JAG due to their seniority. Harm chose to sit beside her in the seat next to hers. "Traffic was hell this morning…" he muttered as he dropped his briefcase right beside the desk.

"Had a gut hunch this morning to get out early, sir." Meg grinned at him. "Got out at 0445…and well…at least I was able to miss most of the traffic stops coming in. Heard there were two fender-benders on the Beltway so I switched lanes early to avoid getting locked in on the Beltway and miss my exit."

Harm looked over at her; envious. "I sure wish I had those gut hunches; would have saved myself a helluva lot of time."

It didn't take long for the JAG to show up and the attorneys in the office stood up and waited at the position of attention until the JAG ordered them to sit down.

The day for Meg was full of tasks to complete and case-files to go over and an exhausted Lieutenant JG Meg Austin was more than happen to head back to her apartment in the Navy Yard District of DC to a comforting dinner and night with her boyfriend.

_**JAG Headquarters; Washington DC; September 29, 1994; 0945hrs**_

Meg found Thursday just as painful as the day coming back from leave – it probably wouldn't be until mid-week next week that her mental state clicked back into work mode but she tried her best to concentrate on the cases assigned to her. Her thoughts kept wandering over to her boyfriend and what enjoyable thing he was doing; looking at the planes over at the National Air and Space Museum; she smiled to herself as she looked over at his picture on her desk. Actually it was a picture of the two of them together at the zoo which they had gone to on one of the days of her leave; she was in a jean shirt and white blouse and she had on a jean-skirt; they were both looking at the camera and both had wide smiles on their faces. She was already eyeing a frame at one of the photo shops; a perfect frame for their Christmas dinner photo that she planned on having done; Tosh would make a great photo dressed in his dinner dress whites with commander's boards on his shoulders and wearing his officer's cap. She would be dressed in a figure hugging evening gown – she hadn't determined what color it would be as of yet, but when she figured that out, they would make a stunning pair.

A knock on her door caused her to start visibly and she called out, "Enter!"

"Hey…" her partner said giving her a grin. "So…are you busy?"

"Did you not get a new load of cases, sir?" Meg asked raising an eyebrow at the question. "Because I did…"

Harm grinned at her. "Mine are mostly ones where I have to interview witnesses – ninety percent being larceny cases; find out what's going on and I can do that later on today – they're relatively simple to dispense with and not really ones that require a whole lot of work to do." He noticed the frame on her desk resisting the urge to pick it up and look at the picture in the frame; it wasn't facing in his direction of sight…and it was Meg's property. "Hey, that's new…" He looked over at Meg.

"Yes…it is…" Meg remarked briefly with regards to Harm's observation as she stuck her face back in her file; so much for Harm's attempt to find out what picture was in that frame. "I've probably got to go down to Norfolk today at some point and interview some of the couples that I have to deal with – y'know find out their stories and why they're at loggerheads with each other. Same old _my husband or my wife spends too much time with the service; that's why our marriage split apart and I've now got the kids…I'm leaving town and my husband or wife wants to stop me from moving on with my life…_" she muttered crossly. "And I have to waste time doing a four hour drive down and a four hour drive back. And here I was hoping that I could get home and have our Cantonese Chicken tonight. I started working on it yesterday and it's marinated enough that I could just pop it in the oven; however that case is going to set back my getting back home until around 1930hrs. Hang these cases!" she grumbled. "If I don't report back in; they'd consider me AWOL from ETA to next morning…and that necessitates a trip back here before going home."

"Hey, I got an interview down in Norfolk. So why don't we do that together; would save you some energy and I can drive." Harm suggested as he looked over at her with a look of expectation that she would agree to his suggestion.

"The speed at which you drive would probably put me to sleep…" Meg replied archly. "But then again, that's not a bad idea. At least I'll be well rested." She smirked. Harm rolled his eyes.

"That's a little too much information. Meg…" Harm stated; a wide grin on his face as he looked over at Meg's look of embarrassment on her face at the implication of Harm's statement; a look of frustration quickly following as she shot him a sharp look letting him know that it wasn't her intention to have said something that he could construe as a red-light comment .

"Well, sir, I was just stating as fact that I would be well-rested after a good nap; I can't help that your mind ends up crawling into the gutter." Meg said. "…sir…" she added as she started packing up the files that she needed to take with her. "I've got about three interviews I have to do in Norfolk so it might take a while; if you don't mind waiting."

"I'll review my cases…while I'm waiting." Harm replied…heading back to his office to grab his cover and his black windbreaker. Meg did the same and they headed downstairs to the Navy motor pool vehicle assigned for JAG investigative use.

"So…where's Animal today?" Harm asked as they pulled out of the parking garage.

"He mentioned something about going to see the National Air and Space Museum…so I figure he's there or heading up there about now…" Meg replied as she looked out the window at the changing color of the leaves. Harm by this time had pulled up to the first red light at the intersection…just before the guard-gate.

"Heading out to Norfolk." Harm told the guard.

"OK…you have a good one, sir." The Marine guard stated, "Drive safe…sir."

"Will do, Thanks Sergeant." Harm replied and they were finally on the road to Norfolk.

Meg thought that she'd better tell Tosh that she was going to be late coming home and if he could pop the Cantonese Chicken in the oven for 1 hr at around 1800hrs because it was going to be about 1930hrs before she got home and she would be tired and want to eat relatively quickly. So she pulled out her cell-phone and dialed Tosh's cell-phone – when the call connected she found out that evidently he was up and out of their apartment because she could hear the echo of a vast open interior space which meant more than likely that he was at the Air and Space Museum. Evidently considering the drive time, he'd probably left about eight o'clock in the morning.

"Hey, honey?" Harm rolled his eyes as he heard Meg's endearment to her boyfriend, "Yeah, I have to head down to Norfolk to do some interviews. New cases…so I'm going to be a bit late coming home. Yeah…four hours there and four hours back. Harm's doing the driving; he's evidently got an investigation there too; so yeah…I'll be home around 1930hrs…can you pop the Cantonese Chicken in the oven for an hour; half hour covered; half an hour uncovered. Yup…I want to eat when I get back; don't wanna have to wait on it to cook. OK…love you, sweetheart…" Harm surprisingly kept control of the vehicle considering the fact that he rolled his eyes hard enough to see the inside of his skull. Meg grinned as she ended the call looking over at Harm, "What…sir?" she asked knowing darned well what Harm was thinking.

"I think I'm going to die of saccharine poisoning." Harm muttered caustically as Meg gave him a wide smile.

"Well…" Meg replied, "Always have to make time for the relationship to work out…" she informed him with another cheeky grin while Harm rolled his eyes again.


	8. Cantonese Chicken and High Ground

_Fun JAG fact – _Do you know the reason why Harm's mother's home was in La Jolla, California?_The JAG technical advisor was Rear Admiral Paul Gillchrist_ – in Chapter 29 of his book _Feet Wet: Reflections of a Carrier Pilot_; he and his wife Nancy's home was in La Jolla as an O-5 stationed with VF-53 – his XO tour was with that squadron. That was Don's nod to the technical advisor on his show. Secondary fact: VF-53, back when he was flying, flew F-8E Crusaders and the callsign the squadron used was "Firefighter". Familiar callsign on the show…used for Harm's VF-241 Howlers squadron? Tertiary Fact: The Badman callsign used for the VF-161 Raptors; was a callsign used by an attack squadron onboard the USS Hancock. Their CAG Dutch Netherland was shot down over Do San in Vietnam in '67 flying an A-4C Skyhawk; the mount used by that squadron. Note that there are two locations, The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in DC and the Steven F. Udver-Hazy Center-National Air and Space Museum. near Washington-Dulles Airport. The one Animal is going to is the Steven F. Udver-Hazy Center where the F-14 is located and the real F-14 at the Steven F. Udver-Hazy Center (Jeez, they make it hard to write it out...don't they?) is from the VF-31 Tomcatters and it's an F-14D.

Chapter Seven – _Cantonese Chicken and High Ground_

_**National Air and Space Museum; Steven F. Udver-Hazy Center-National Air and Space Museum, Fairfax County, Virginia; September 29, 1994;**_ _**1045hrs **_

_So Meg had to go down to Norfolk_. Animal thought to himself as he wandered the expansive hangar like building that housed the National Air and Space Museum. It was quite the exhibit of all the different aircraft that had made front page news. and Animal wondered if Alan Shepard's capsule was also in the display area; the very first man to reach space from the United States, even if it was a ballistic trajectory that put him into space for a brief moment – even if it was a Marine that went into orbit; the Navy got there first – that probably chafed the Air Force's asses. Animal was pretty certain that General of the Air Force Curtis LeMay was probably furious as hell that an Air Force pilot wasn't selected to be the first man in space or even the first man to orbit earth – but at the time, the USAF was just a baby service broken off from the United States Army. During the big Two, the United States didn't have a so-called _air force_. It was an aviation section under the governance of the United States Army: The United States _**Army**__** Air Force**_.

The National Air and Space Museum had an extensive collection of aerial vehicles even a space shuttle had been squeezed into the complex. Animal had managed to take a look at Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1; the rocket powered plane that had been the first to break the sound barrier in level flight – there were crowds from all over looking at it. And of course, he had to go see the F-14A Tomcat that was exhibited there. Of course one of the highest hour airframes were the first to be decommissioned for use as an exhibit. It wasn't his own, but he figured, why not take a look at her? As typical it was a VF-84 airframe – they had the fancy schmancy yellow black and white glitzy red-carpet Hollywood glamour – the pirate scheme with the skull and crossbones. The Jolly Rogers got all the glory, it seemed. But he was with the squadron that first blooded the Tomcat; the less glamorous VF-41 Black Aces squadron whose squadron symbol was the black rimmed, white playing card with a scarlet line intersecting the ace of spades in the middle – in fact the Black Aces were the ones that got the kills in the Gulf of Sidra blooding the Tomcat for the first time in US service. He was definitely certain that the VF-84 CO was pretty hot under the collar about not having been the ones up on that hop. Hank had always had that grin about him when he referred to the incident, at having put one over on the Hollywood Rogers. Yeah, the VF-84 were a storied squadron getting kills out the wazoo in the Big Two in air battles in the Pacific, but you couldn't ride your past feats and sit on your laurels for the rest of your squadron's existence and well, VF-41 was up there when it counted; they got the kills that counted to blood the Tomcat, as well as another two when Animal shot down the F-15J during their spat with Japan just nine years later and Harm got his F-2A. Just like the Howlers also blooded the Tomcat when Animal and Harm got their combined three kills in Desert Storm. One MiG 29 (his), one Su-27 (his) and one MiG 27 (Rabb's); all were now smoking wreckage in the Iraqi desert. Well, evidently the VF-84 F-14s in _The Final Countdown _got two Zeros. That oughta count for at least something, Animal grinned. Ah, Hollywood and their far-out fantasies.

He wasn't wearing a uniform, just a white t-shirt, jeans and a pair of Nike sneakers and he wore a CWU-36 with the nameplate of the VF-41 and the authentic black rimmed red-slashed white playing card bearing an ace of spades with the number 41 inside. His nameplate still read LCDR because he hadn't gotten around to getting a new nameplate made up for his jacket. He figured he'd better do it soon; maybe he might stop by the NEX on the way home to see if he could get one made up with his proper rank. The nameplate was embroidered rather than black leather with gold embossing – the leather nameplate had to be redone on a regular basis as the gold embossing would generally wear away eventually; he actually preferred the embroidered ones. His read on the first line, "TOSHIO NAKAMURA"; the second his callsign centered and the third line, "LCDR" with a long space between it and "USN".

He had his RayBans hooked to his t-shirt by the earpiece, and he looked the part of a fighter jock with his hair trimmed neatly and extremely short.

"So…you lookin' at the Tomcat?" A guy with his own CWU-36 light weight flight jacket looked over at Animal. "So…you the official deal?" he asked lookin' over at Animal's nameplate.

"Yeah…thirteen ten off the TR…Black Aces" Animal informed him.

"Ah…thirteen eleven off Carl Vinson…Jolly Rogers" the man told him; evidently the feller was a RIO, he looked over at the guy's nameplate. Yeah. Naval Flight Officer's wings – legit. If you couldn't call up your designator code when asked, you weren't the real deal. "You look like you're old enough to have been in the Navy when we were sister squadron to yours on the Nimitz."

"Yeah…had my nugget cruise in October 83; out to the Med, I think we were still with you guys in 83 with Eight." Animal replied indicating their Air Wing at the time, the man noted his accuracy of that assessment with a nod.

"You were more than likely a JG on your nugget cruise." That was also correct. Animal had his nugget cruise the second year that he was in-squadron and was promoted to O-3 in his last year with the squadron before he went to teach at RAG. "So…you still an O-4?" the man asked him.

"My nameplate says so, but I just got battlefield promoted to O-5…just haven't had time to change over my nameplate, yet; convalescing from getting in the way of a couple NK fired Chicom seven point six twos." Animal informed him indicating the lumpy bandages underneath his t-shirt with a casual glance to the side.

"Shit…that's gotta suck. You going for rehab…Congratulations on making Commander by the way. Just got my eagles.."

"As soon as the wounds heal up; gonna head in, do rehab until my shoulder is strong enough to take what gets dished out in the office then it's back to RAG for refresher training in type. Congratulations on your promotion too, sir." Animal nodded. "You got shore-duty?"

"Yeah…they put me in the five-sided shithouse as an aide to an admiral." Animal nodded at the derogatory reference to the Pentagon; he wanted to stay far away from the Pentagon for the long haul if he could manage it. He was hoping that he'd get assigned to War College to pick up some post-graduate education in the art of war and senior fleet management.

"Hey…Nakamura…" the captain looked over at his nametag again, a little closer "…aren't you the guy that's been touted for the blue-button?"

"There's scuttlebutt crawling around to that effect. Not sure though. Investigators from JAG came down…talked to a bunch of people…" Animal looked over at him. "You stuck in BuPers as shore duty? Sir?"

The man grinned, "Yeah…guilty as charged…" Vice Admiral Wynnick was a staff officer, but he was a ball-buster and he'd come up from JAG and switched over to Bureau of Personnel. "When I'm not lining the Admiral's in-box with papers…he needs to sign, I'm down helping deal with Awards and Decorations. That was one helluva way to get nominated."

"Just lucky, sir, it could have easily went the other way." Meaning that he could have gotten killed rather than get an award. Animal looked over at the man, "So, you have CAG tour or carrier command tour after this shore-duty? Sir?"

"I'm hoping for CAG tour…hate sitting around on my hands with my thumb up my ass. At least CAG post will let me get up and fly for a bit. I take it you're in line for XO tour?"

"Well, if I can make it back in the saddle, sir. I'm hoping that my next cruise out will be as XO…then hopefully I get a command tour with the squadron. Got an F-15J too during that spitball-fight with the Japanese with VF-41. I spent three years as a Howler where I got my kills over the Sandbox but after that it was back to the Aces. " The man looked at him with awe as he knew darned well that Animal was Japanese-American and going up against Japan had to be tough on him.

"I'm getting a bit dry. Shall we hit the cafeteria here and grab a soda?" The man suggested.

"Sounds like a plan, sir." The two men headed for the cafeteria.

It was about 1400hrs when Animal said, "Sir, I gotta start heading back; gotta make sure that I'm home to cook dinner before my girlfriend gets home. She's down in Norfolk doing an investigation."

"So your girlfriend's Navy too?" the captain asked.

"Yeah, she's a JAG…" Animal grinned. "We started dating…and well, gotta make a good first impression…so gotta have that dinner all nice and ready by the time she gets home."

"Well, it was good meeting you, Animal." The captain stated. "Good luck on your rehab…and hope you get back into the office quickly."

"Good to meet you too, Woz." The man was Captain Benjamin Woskowitz; Animal also had noted the name and call-sign on the man's nametag. "Hope to see you in the fleet…maybe with any luck; my squadron might get posted to your Air Wing."

"Fair Winds…"

"Following Seas…"

Animal headed out the door of the museum and headed to the parking lot.

_**Naval Station Norfolk; Norfolk VA, September 29, 1994; 1630hrs **_

It was at about 1430 that Meg realized that she'd made a major miscalculation on the amount of time that it took to get back. With the interviews, she realized that she was going to have to add at least three hours to that time and she might end up having to eat out before she reached home or it was going to be a very annoyed stomach by the time she got home if she didn't feed it at some point during the day so after the last interview at 1600hrs, before they hopped in the car, Meg said to Harm, "If we don't grab a bite to eat, sir, at some point on the way home, my stomach lining is probably going to eat itself."

"That a request? Lieutenant?" Harm grinned at her. "I can stop by a Beltway Burgers…if you want to…"

"Anything, sir…that will tide me over till I get home…and can get to the chicken."

She picked up the phone and dialed Animal's cell phone. He didn't pick up…evidently he was still on the road and Meg knew to leave a message on Animal's phone. "Hey hon, if you can…wait on putting in the chicken in the oven. I miscalculated and I won't be home till after 2230hrs. So if you could pop it in around 2130hrs, it should be done cooking and still be warm by the time I get home? Love you lots, sweetie…" Harm did another eye-roll. "Problem, sir?" she asked with a knowing grin.

"No problem…" Harm muttered… "The endearments are cute…it's just turning my appetite off…" he finished while Meg grinned at him. She knew that the endearments to her boyfriend were turning Harm's stomach. But Harm also knew that he didn't own Meg Austin; that she was her own woman and that she could very well make her own choices as to who she dated. _I'll just have to deal with it by myself_, Harm thought. _ But that doesn't mean that I can't tease her about it at least when it came to the lovey-dovey proclamations_. Of course he remembered that she was in a relationship with someone who was senior in rank to him, so there was that to consider as well, though he knew very well, that Animal would never pull rank on him when it came to private matters. Animal wasn't big on rank; except when deferring to his superiors. He never liked pulling rank on anyone and only did it if the person responsible for _his having to pull rank_ was officious enough to deserve it.

There was no sorry from Meg; there really was no need of it. Her relationship was just that…it didn't require any explanation on her part or any apologies for getting into one. She didn't need his approval.

"So…how is his wound healing up…any chance that he'll get into rehab before the end of the year?" Harm asked her.

"It's a waiting game, sir. I've been applying the antibiotic for his wound…and he's been changing the bandages judiciously. But it all depends on when the wound closes up firmly so that it doesn't come open again. The stitches on the Mercy helped, but it still needs some administering of antibiotic on a regular basis at every bandage change so that the wound doesn't get infected and heals properly." Meg informed him. "The doctor said _about the first week of January_ is when they suspect that it will be healed enough that he can start working on getting his strength back in his arm…then it's over to his fleet air replacement group to refresh his aviation training."

"Yeah, he lives and breathes flying…"

"Just like you, sir." Meg responded, "He misses his Tomcat."

Harm nodded, he remembered Animal's love for flying and air combat – pitting his talent and tactics against another man in another flying machine and coming out the victor, whether it was on the TACTS range or whether it was over the sandbox for real. It was the same as how Harm felt about flying and fighting in the F-14 after he'd distinguished himself in combat over Iraq and Harm had felt like he'd had a piece of him surgically removed without anesthetic when it came to losing his wings at his FNAEB ten months after the ramp strike; and still did, when hearing the sound of an F-14 spooling up on the ramp or in full burner at the end of the runway or overhead.

He could still hear the words that the Captain chairing the evaluation board hearing spoke that rang the death knell on his flying career:

_Lieutenant Harmon Rabb Jr., on or about the night of 18 December 1991, lost clear vision in his eyes, while under blue-water operations in the Mediterranean Sea; the outcome of which was a ramp strike which resulted in the loss of the aircraft as well as the loss of his Radar Intercept Officer. It is the board's finding that Lieutenant Rabb was negligent in his due diligence in maintaining his physical airworthiness. The findings indicate pilot error in the incident; therefore Lieutenant Rabb is hereby suspended from naval aviator status. Lieutenant Rabb will surrender his wings to his squadron commanding officer and will no longer be authorized to wear naval aviator wings until such time as it is deemed that he has re-qualified both physically and technically as a naval aviator. As of now, Lieutenant Rabb is hereby ordered to US Naval Bureau of Personnel to determine whether he will continue his naval service in another designator or if he will be out-processed from naval service. These are the findings of this Fleet Naval Aviator Evaluation Board convened 05 October 1992. _

It was a verdict that still haunted him to this day; the words burned into his memory, even after getting his wings back from Tom Boone with approval being given from the JCS after landing the Tomcat back aboard the Seahawk two years later during a JAG investigation with Lieutenant JG Kate Pike in order to make sure that Tom and he didn't have to eject into the Aegean Sea. The complete and utter devastation that he had felt when he lost those gold wings that he had worked so hard for still reverberated like aftermath of the explosion of a nuclear warhead in his psyche.

Animal had a wound that would heal and provided there were no complications; he would be back to flight status as soon as he finished his refresher training in the F-14 at RAG and then onto a cruise as an XO. Harm, on the other hand, felt that he had a physical defect; one that yanked him out of the cockpit and there was no going back. Sure he still had the abilities to fly an F-14 Tomcat any chance that he could get; but he couldn't fly at night due to his night-blindness and that would end up killing his career as a blue water naval aviator. In that way, he envied Animal. At least he could go back to doing what it was that he loved doing. Harm was not so lucky. He often questioned what had happened, but Animal had told him that you can't dwell on the past; you have to just move forward.

_Harm, you'll always remember what happened up there. You will always carry the guilt of an accident determined to be your fault; but the thing is that you can't let that guilt eat you up to the point where you lose focus. You always keep moving forward. That's life, shipmate. Question what you did wrong and what you can do to correct it if it's correctable; if it isn't, make peace with your decision and move on. But don't let the questions eat you up. You make your mistakes; you learn from them and you move forward. And you make damned sure that you don't repeat the same mistake twice._

He sighed as he looked over at Meg. "You're right, I miss flying too and I envy Animal being able to go back to do what he does best. But the main crux is that my diagnosis prevents me from getting into the cockpit at night and that's what aviators are expected to do; night patrols, night traps, night cat-shots…the whole nine-yards…and we don't have a bingo field in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. You're expected to trap aboard the carrier or you end up losing a thirty-six million dollar aircraft due to pilot incompetence. That's what Animal and I meant by the turn in the barrel stories. You end up making pass after pass until you make it in or you crash, one or the other. And if you still can't make it aboard after multiple passes, the CAG will just get tired of it after sending up two or three tankers…to pass gas, he'll just tell you to trap in the Davis, meaning he'll catch you in the barrier; you end up damaging the aircraft because there's no clean barrier trap and it's a one way ticket to the beach for you because you're no longer qualified as a deployable aviator which means your career as a naval aviator is over. It's dead serious business out there, Meg. There're no second chances."

Meg nodded; she knew that Harm knew his stuff, after all, he learned it from her now boyfriend. It was a physical defect that caused Harm to have his ramp strike; not any deficiency in Animal's instruction; evidently her boyfriend was extremely tough on his protégés for that very reason. It was something that couldn't be helped and unfortunately it cost the Navy a thirty-six million dollar airframe and the loss of a two million dollar cost in training a naval flight officer who had been killed in the crash. Hence the reason the Navy was very unforgiving of someone who lost an airframe due to personal failings and even more so if that accident had resulted in the loss of flight crew. Meg understood that all too well from the Navy's position on many of the NAVAIR accident cases that she and Harm had investigated.

Harm stated with a tone of wistful longing, "If I do go back, I have to be one hundred percent, meaning that I'd have to be able to fly at night, that my vision problems either clear up entirely with no reoccurrence or there's some way to get my vision corrected so that I have full night-vision again."

"Would you ever go back and get your vision checked out to see if it can be correctable?"

"They told me that it was a genetic problem and something that can't be fixed by surgery…when they examined my eyes prior to the FNAEB." His tone was hopeless. "I never wanted to get a second opinion…because then it would mean that…" He stopped talking for a long moment as he drew in a long shuddering breath. "It would mean that…I made a mistake…that I clung to the fact that it was a genetic problem and not the fact that I didn't press the matter when I got told that it was an infection that would clear up…back in 89. For me finding out that it wasn't night-blindness, the genetic cop-out to taking the blame for an accident that cost me my RIO when I struck the ramp; it would have been devastating knowing that I could have prevented the crash by just forcing the issue back in 89…"

"And now?" Meg asked; she understood that it was Harm's way of coping with the aftermath of the accident.

"I don't know if I've come to terms with Mace's death yet." Harm said quietly but Meg could read the emotion in his voice; despite his earning his wings back he still hadn't come to terms with the ramp-strike and the fact that his actions cost his RIO Mace his life. He drove in silence for a long while. When he spotted a Beltway Burgers, he stopped in and Meg ordered a Beltway Supreme and a large Coke. Harm got himself a Coke as well, even though he rarely liked touching cola; chock full of sugar and other things that weren't good for you, but occasionally as a treat was fine and he ordered some fries. At least it would keep them until they got back to the office, which was still a few hours drive yet; and at least prevent them from being ravenous by the time they stepped into HQ. The galley was open still; after all officers did have a tendency to work late, but their offerings were lean by the time that they would get into the office.

After they ate, it was a straight shot into the office; where they gathered up their stuff; said their good-byes and headed out of the office for the night. Harm heading up to his townhouse and Meg heading to her apartment she shared with Animal to hopefully spend a relaxing night with her boyfriend; enjoying the Cantonese chicken that should be in the oven at 2130hrs.

_**Meg's Apartment; Washington DC, September 29, 1994 2130hrs **_

Animal had received the call from Meg on his cell phone's voice mail and well, he had popped the chicken in the oven to cook at 375F at the requested time of 2130hrs. It had been a half hour since it had gone into the oven, so Animal grabbed an oven mitt and delicately maneuvered the foil off the baking dish. There were at least ten pieces of chicken glazed with the honey-soy sauce-ketchup-lemon sauce; good enough for two meals if they were exceedingly hungry; two pieces tonight; three pieces on Friday or vice versa along with rice and steamed vegetables on the side.

The previous week, Animal had gone up to Bethesda and asked Dr. Whitman if he could talk to someone about the post-traumatic stress flashbacks/dreams that he'd had when he was on the TR and while in Yokosuka and Dr. Whitman, being a concerned and trained doctor took him seriously even when Animal had mentioned that they had stopped ever since Meg and he had gotten into an intimate relationship and had arranged for him to speak to someone about it. Meg was so comfortable with Animal as her significant other that she hadn't even batted an eyelash at Animal's mentioning that they were in an intimate relationship, after all it was a straight-forward fact – it was doctor-patient confidentiality any how; and if it wasn't affecting the discipline and good order of the command that she was under, then the Navy would look the other way. So he was planning to go up on the third of October, a Monday, to go and get some counseling to deal with the PTSD from the Hill 175 incident and meet up with the psychiatrist so that he could get a handle on some of the emotions and stuff that happened which would go a long way to helping him stay on an even keel emotionally. He was looking forward to getting that matter resolved.

Looking at the clock it was 2200 and Animal went back over to the couch/loveseat and sat down to read some more out of his NATOPS manual for the F-14A Tomcat. He also had the NATOPS manuals for the A+; otherwise known as the F-14B and the F-14D because each had their own characteristics in handling but since he was with a squadron that flew the "A", he'd hone up on that manual. Applying himself to NATOPS procedure would stand him in good stead since he wouldn't be as rusty as if he'd just sat around and ate nothing but Ho-Hos and watched TV re-runs while recuperating. If there was one thing that his father drilled into him; it was being disciplined. And that had stood him in good stead even through the emotional upheavals in his second year of university when he found out that his father had had a fatal heart-attack three months before the end of the school term and his mother passed away five months later just before he went back for third year. He was on his own and he had to be disciplined in order to put his academics first and he graduated top of his NROTC class with a high academic average. So he buried his face in the NATOPS manual while waiting for the chicken to finish and he pulled it out when the alarm went off on the timer.

Making sure that he put two pot-rests side by side on the counter before putting down the baking dish onto them to keep the hot baking dish from scorching the counter-top and devaluing Meg's apartment; after all, home repair was a foreign concept to him. Unfortunately he'd never really been mechanically inclined nor was being able to replace a countertop even in the realm of possibility for him and thus for him; prevention of damage was a much better concept than having to repair something that could have been avoided. He breathed deeply as he smelt the aromatic flavors coming from the chicken…and made sure that it was covered again with foil; glossy side inwards to keep the heat from the baked chicken sealed in and making sure that it didn't get too cold before Meg got home. Making sure that the rice was still warm, he pulled the plug on the rice cooker to cut the heat, keeping the cover on to keep in the steam to keep the rice nice and soft; after all he didn't want the edges to get crunchy. And he checked on the steamed vegetables which were still steaming away on low heat.

And at exactly 2230hrs, the key was heard in the lock and the door opened. Animal looked over at the doorway to see Meg coming in; a look of relief on her face at being able to come home and be able to eat. "mmmm, that smells good." She said as she leaned in to give Animal a kiss. "I see you got my message."

"Yup…like you thought, I was on the road, on my way back to the aparment when you left the message." Animal replied.

"It's so convenient having you here…if you weren't, I'd have to come home...throw the chicken in the oven; make rice, steam the vegetables…and I wouldn't be eating for another two hours." She gave him another kiss, "I knew you were good for something." Animal gave her a smirk. Getting down plates, they dished themselves up a few pieces of chicken each and then scooped in some vegetables and rice. After all, it smelled absolutely heavenly and they found out that the chicken was thoroughly marinated having spent a whole night in the fridge sitting in the glaze before being thrown in the oven. It was absolutely mouth-watering when they bit into the chicken pieces - absolutely rewarding.

Meg was happy with the result and seeing her boyfriend enjoying the result of her culinary efforts gave her a warm feeling. When they were done, they headed over to the sink and washed their dishes together. Being able to be close physically was satisfying and when they were finished with the dishes, they retired to the bedroom as it was getting late at night and well; Meg had work the next morning – so no hanky-panky either. It would have to wait for Friday night. And they were satisfied with curling up together in bed and going to sleep.

_**JAG HQ, Navy Yard, Washington; DC, 1330hrs, September 30, 1994**_

After Harm returned from lunch, he ran into RADM AJ Chegwidden. "Lieutenant Commander Rabb, in my office…" the rear admiral stated as he leaned into Rabb's office as he headed for his own. "There's an urgent case that you and Lieutenant JG Austin need to investigate. I'll give you the details when you both get into my office."

"Aye-aye, sir…" Harm said as he turned to go notify Meg of the new case that had just dropped into their laps. And fifteen minutes later, they were in the admiral's office standing at attention.

"Sit down…" the admiral said briefly. And the two officers sat down in the chairs. AJ looked at them with a grim expression. "There's been a shooting at Marine Corps Station Quantico, Maryland. A Gunnery Sergeant Ray Crockett allegedly took a shot at his commanding officer. Now Colonel Gordon wants the Gunny's ass tied to a tree and skinned alive." The admiral sighed, ran his hand through his thinning hair and then looked back at Harm and Meg, "The Gunny and I go back…a long way. It was a hell of a night. NVA coming through the wire. My position was overrun. Our team didn't have a snowball's chance in hell that night of making it through." He paused, "What I didn't know was that the Marines were covering our asses that night. There was a total of eighteen shots that night." He looked grim. "Sunrise, we found eighteen dead NVA; all around my position." He paused a long moment to let that sink in. "All killed with single shots…when we got back to base, we heard that Marine Recon had a sniper up in the trees, a Lance Corporal Ray Crockett." He shook his head ruefully, "I tracked him down in Saigon, wouldn't even let me buy him a drink, didn't want to dull his senses."

Harm replied, "Sir, if Gunnery Sergeant Crockett took a shot at Colonel Gordon, it'll be hard to avoid a general court-martial, Admiral."

"Fair investigation first, that's all I ask. That man saved my life, do what you can to save his." The admiral ordered as he gave them a hard look as if to say _I expect you to do whatever it takes_. At least that was the unspoken order that Harm thought he'd received.

"Aye-aye, sir…" Harm and Meg chorused as they snapped to attention.

"Dismissed…" The two about-faced and exited the admiral's office. Looking at each other, Harm and Meg sighed…

"This one's going to be tough to avoid a court-martial…" Meg said. "I'll hook up with you at the motor-pool. I have to call Tosh and tell him the bad news…that we're going to be out on another investigation…and this time I may not make it home tonight…looks like this one's a multi-day investigation…" She sighed; she'd hoped that since they hadn't had much time together the past few days, that she'd be able to have a bit of intimacy that night, but well, the Navy had thrown a monkey-wrench in those plans.

Harm rolled his eyes again, "OK…I'll see you down at the motor-pool as soon as I get my things together." He didn't have a significant other that he had to notify that he was going to be out of town and he didn't know whether that was a good thing or something that he was disappointed about.

Tosh told Meg on the phone call, "I understand, Meg…orders are orders, hon; and you gotta obey them" even as Meg sounded disappointed.

"I'll call you when I get settled at the VOQ…" Meg said, "I love you…"

"Love you too, Meg… stay safe, OK?"

"I'll try…"

When she'd finished the call, she grabbed her things and headed down to the motor pool to meet up with Harm so that they could get on their way to Quantico. Even though it was only about an hour and a half out of town; it still meant a multi-day investigation as the case was serious. _Attempting to injure a superior officer_ was a serious offence and one that could end up being an _**Article 128; **__**(b) AGGRAVATED ASSAULT**__.—Any person subject to this chapter— (1) who, with the intent to do bodily harm, offers to do bodily harm with a dangerous weapon_, which carried a maximum penalty of a dishonorable discharge; forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 3 years. There were other statutes in the UCMJ that had been contravened as well. And the admiral wanted them to mitigate his charges? That certainly was going to be difficult for them to do if it wasn't impossible.

_**MC Base Quantico, Quantico VA, 0835 (the following Friday)**_

"Good morning, Colonel. Prisoner Crockett is present as ordered, sir."

"Good morning, Colonel,"

Colonel Gordon gave the Gunnery Sergeant a hard-faced look. "Good morning, Gunnery Sergeant" he responded almost reluctantly.

"Gunnery Sergeant Crockett, is it your contention that you had no malicious intent when you fired on Colonel Gordon's vehicle?"

"Sir? The Colonel wouldn't let me explain my deal." GSGT Crockett stated, "I was just trying to get the CO's attention, sir."

"The Colonel has agreed to let us duplicate your shot," Harm said with some hint of trepidation as the last time that he and Crockett had spoken, Crockett had implied with some menace: _Don't ever let me see you in my scope, Commander._ Would he follow through with that threat or would Harm still keep his cranium intact? "Rather than ask the Colonel and his aide to drive the vehicle, the task has fallen on me."

Just to add some more tension to the mix, the Gunnery Sergeant stared at Harm and stated sotto voce, "Sir, the Gunnery Sergeant meant what he said when he warned the Commander about not getting in his scope." Oh shit. Harm's heart sank near to his toes. Nope, this was not proving to be a good day after all. Technically, the Gunny could be put on charges under Article 115, Communicating Threats; however Harm had chosen to ignore that.

Swallowing a choking feeling as his Adam's apple appeared to leap into his throat, he somehow managed to get out the words, "Your sincerity is not at issue here, Gunny; your intentions are." How he managed to elocute that sentence while wondering if he was going to make it out alive out of this demonstration was a miracle.

"ATTENTION ON THE RANGE!" Harm turned to see the JAG come striding towards them. Both he and the Gunnery Sergeant snapped to attention.

Turning to Meg he asked out of the corner of his mouth, "What the hell's he doing here?"

Meg gave him a pointed look, "Making sense of nonsense, I hope." Looking him up and down; she stated, "I didn't want to see you get yourself killed, sir…"

"I'm flattered,"

"Don't be, sir, I have enough work to do without having to explain to the admiral why my partner got himself killed during an investigation. The paperwork would be endless…" Meg smirked at him.

_**MC Base Quantico, Quantico VA, 0900hrs **_

Harm stopped the jeep as soon as he saw the rear-view mirror on the driver's side of the vehicle shatter. Slumping bonelessly in his seat, he let out a deep sigh of utter relief…as the stress he had put himself through came seeping out in a flood. Gunnery Sergeant Crockett was a man of honor; he'd never gun down a fellow man in uniform, even though he may have threatened that he would do so in the heat of anger.

_**MC Base Quantico, Quantico VA, 0900hrs (back on the hill)**_

"Gunnery Sergeant Crockett, the Corps cannot allow prior gallantry to be used as an excuse for reckless behavior, therefore I have no choice but to find you guilty of wanton destruction of miscellaneous items of government property. You are hereby ordered to make full restitution. In addition you are restricted to base for sixty days at half-pay; any questions?"

"Sir, no sir!"

"Pin your chevrons back on." Colonel Gordon stated, "Return to duty!"

"Aye-aye sir!" barked GSGT Crockett; then turning to the Commander, he stated, "Thanks Commander, you've got some major brass." He grinned grimly, "Eight weeks, I'll make you a hell of a sniper."

Harm still somewhat shaken; smiled back nervously stating, "Maybe next time, I'll keep it in mind."

The rear admiral approached the two, "Gunnery Sergeant Crockett, I believe I still owe you a drink if you're done shooting for the day."

Crockett snapped to attention, "Sir, I'd be honored, sir."

Harm leaned over, "You still don't remember him, do you? Gunny?"

Gunnery Sergeant Ray Crockett grinned at him, "Commander, A gunnery sergeant don't tell a two star he don't remember him."

"Commander Rabb, Lieutenant Austin; why don't you join us?" The admiral grinned gesturing to the group exiting the hill enroute to the watering hole.

"Sir, As much as I'd like to join you, the Colonel, the Commander and the Gunnery Sergeant; permission to secure…" Colonel Gordon and the Admiral looked at her as Meg stated, "I have someone waiting for me back up in DC…" Admiral Chegwidden wasn't the slightest bit put-out by Meg's stating that she would prefer to join her boyfriend rather than toss back a few with them; after all she was in a relationship with someone. Besides, it was more of a get-together between the guys and she would probably feel out of the loop.

AJ grinned knowingly, "Of course, Lieutenant. Do you have a ride back?" as Harm looked over at Meg with a wistful glance.

"Well, considering that my significant other is an O-5, I'm sure that he'd be able to access the base to pick me up from Quantico…and drop me off at HQ to pick up my car, sir." Meg grinned.

"Very well," Colonel Gordon stated, "Lieutenant, I'll clear it with the gate-guard so that you can get picked up by your significant other."

_**MC Base Quantico; Quantico, VA; October 7, 1994 1050hrs**_

Animal sighed as he pulled up to the gate-guard showing his ID; he was pleasantly startled at least an hour and forty-five minutes earlier when he'd received a call from Meg asking him if he could pick her up from Quantico. "Thank you, sir…" said the Marine Corps Lance Corporal who was manning the post as Animal showed him his ID. "Colonel Gordon cleared you before-hand, so you can go straight through."

"Thank you, Lance Corporal…" Animal nodded to the gate-guard who saluted him and drove forward towards the parking lot. He was technically on medical leave, but since he was going onto a military installation, Animal decided that it would be in his best interest to wear his service dress blues to avoid mis-identification. Parking his Camaro in the parking spot allowed for base visitors, he noticed Meg, the Admiral, a grizzled Gunnery Sergeant, Harm and Colonel Gordon standing by the headquarters building. Animal got out of the vehicle, put on his cover, shutting the door to his car and walked over to the officers and NCO standing by the building. Walking up to the Marine Corps Colonel, he snapped to attention, and saluted the Colonel as per the rules for officers visiting an installation, whether or not there was an officer higher in rank than the base commander there or not, it was courtesy to pay one's respects to the base commanding officer first. The salute was returned and Animal spoke, "Sir, thank you for the permission to visit the base, sir."

"I understand, that you're here to pick up the Lieutenant JG, Commander."

"Yes, sir."

"Very well…" Colonel Gordon grinned, noting the line-officer star on Animal's sleeves as well as the naval aviator's wings above his ribbon rack, extended out a hand to shake Animal's which was returned with a firm grip and a return grin. Animal then turned to the JAG rear-admiral, rendered him a smart textbook salute which was returned.

"Sir, permission to collect the Lieutenant and depart,"

"Permission granted, Commander."

Meg grinned at Animal as she turned around and executed a crisp salute to both the Admiral and to the Marine Colonel and then of course, to Animal as per formal military protocol which was returned with a properly rendered salute and a grin. "Permission to depart with the Commander, sirs…"

"Permission granted, Lieutenant JG Austin." Both RADM Chegwidden and Colonel Gordon stated formally, but with identical grins. Harm restrained an eye-roll.

Gunny Crockett grinned at Harm knowingly as he watched this display. Evidently the Lieutenant Commander had gotten outmaneuvered for the affections of the Lieutenant JG by the Commander. He had after all noticed how protective the Lieutenant Commander was of the Lieutenant JG. And it appeared that the fact that the Lieutenant JG was unavailable was not very palatable to the Lieutenant Commander. Hey, he was a sniper; he noticed these things; especially when it came to looking for weaknesses. If you got the spouse of a target, he'd be jumpy as hell or would probably be in a mental state as to make him an easier target.

Both Meg and Animal headed for the vehicle. Unlocking the vehicle door for Meg, they both doffed their covers and got in the Camaro. Making their departure from the base, Animal turned to Meg as they turned on to One and headed up towards Woodbridge, "So…to your office, first…then home?"

Meg smirked at him, "As much as I want to go home straight-away…I guess I do have to collect my car at the office…it was a long investigation."

"I missed you…" Animal grinned at her. It'd been a lonely weekend.

"I missed you too…" Meg stated, as she rested her hand against her boyfriend's right, as he used his left to guide the vehicle as he maneuvered the Camaro up the highway. It would be a straight shot, up to the Beltway, then over to the Navy Yard in order to collect her vehicle.


End file.
